‘Red Label’ certification for shrimp farms in Madagascar
The UNIMA group established the MAHAJAMBA (AQUALMA) fish farming company in 1992 with the objective of further developing shrimp farming in Madagascar. The creation and development of AQUALMA were financed by PROPARCO, through loans and equity investments totalling €7.3 million between 1992 and 2005, along with the EIB and the IFC.
Today the group is the biggest shrimp exporter in Madagascar, with 7,500 tons sold in 2006. It runs two fish farms covering 1,200 hectares on the island’s west coast.
The French ministry of agriculture has accorded it the ‘Red Label’ certification – a guarantee of superior quality.
AQUALMA is the biggest company in the fish farming industry - a sector which represents the future of the Madagascan shrimp industry and which is responsible for the sustainable exploitation of shrimp resources.
AQUALMA’s production sites are in isolated areas, leading the company to implement various social programmes and undertake the construction of basic infrastructure. In one village close to one of the farms, which today has a population of 3,000 compared to just a handful of families at the time when the company was created, AQUALMA has financed all the main social infrastructure: a school, a dispensary, the supply of drinking water and electricity, refuse collection, the construction of a public market, an abattoir and an airfield.