China Africa Cotton last week laid the first stone of the cotton ginning factory in Subué, in Mozambique’s Sofala province, according to Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias.

The new industrial unit, which will cost US$6 million, will have capacity to process 30,000 tons of raw cotton and produce 3,000 litres of cooking oil per year, the representative of the Chinese investors, Hu Xiuxiang, told the newspaper.

At the ceremony to lay the first stone, Hu noted that China Africa Cotton had a presence in other African countries and that increased cotton production in the region had led the board of directors to build a cotton processing factory.

Hu Xiuxiang asked the Mozambican Agriculture Minister, José Pacheco, who was at the ceremony, to link the location to the national power grid as quickly as possible in order to ensure that the factory can operate once it is built.