Africa: AGQ Maroc S.A.R.L. (Morocco)

Sponsor: Labs & Technological Holding Solea S.L.
Business: Chemical laboratories
Industry: Chemicals and pharmaceuticals
Product: Joint venture loan
Total investment: 1.11 million euros
Resources: COFIDES / FONPYME

SOLEA, an Andalusian group created in 1993, specialises in chemical analyses, consultancy and outsourcing services in primarily three areas: agriculture, food and environment. AGQ Labs & Technological Services is the subsidiary that conducts the group's productive businesses.

In the agricultural sector, AGQ, an SME, engages in nutritional monitoring and fertiliser optimisation for fruit (especially citric) and olive orchards and vegetable farms. In the food industry, the group audits production processes and provides specialised counselling on product quality. Its analyses are geared to ascertaining the nutritional composition of food and detect pesticides and other pollutants. Lastly, in the environment industry, the group analyses soil and water, performs environmental quality studies and proposes depollution measures.

At the outset, AGQ was a consultant laboratory specialising in agriculture. The food and environment divisions were created later, in 1996 and 2003, respectively. Its newest division, mining, was founded in 2010 to provide specialised laboratory and consultancy services for that industry.

In addition to this industrial diversification, the group has gradually branched out geographically. At this time AGQ has a productive subsidiary in Chile, which received COFIDES financing in 2008. It also has commercial subsidiaries across a wide range of countries: Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, the United States, Egypt and Morocco.

Having consolidated its commercial presence in Morocco, the group has decided to install a laboratory there. The new laboratory, to be located on the outskirts of Casablanca, will strengthen the group's business in that country, one of the main potential exporters of agricultural products to the European Union. The new facility calls for a total investment of over one million euros and will be equipped with two units, one for organic and the other for inorganic analyses.

COFIDES has granted AGQ Maroc, the group's Moroccan subsidiary, a joint venture loan for 732,000 euros to finance the purchase of laboratory instruments and material. The loan will be drawn from both COFIDES (25%) and FONPYME (75%) resources. The project is expected to have a significant impact on development, generating an estimated 30 direct jobs. Similarly, local development will benefit from the technology and know-how transfer implicit in the founding of this laboratory.