Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour inaugurated a new extension of Compagnie Industrielle des Fibres (CIF) at the port city of Tangier, along with its photovoltaic park.
The 5,000 sq m new building located in the municipality of Hajr Nhal has seven machines and operates 24 hours a day, with a production capacity of 12 tons of packaging materials per day, expected to rise to 45 tons by 2025.
Last year, the company also inaugurated the kingdom’s first private photovoltaic park with 6,800 photovoltaic panels installed having a production capacity of 2,700 kilowatts. Supplemented by wind power, 84% of energy consumed by CIF in 2021 was green energy. The company is aiming to achieve 100% green energy by 2025 through contracts with wind power plant companies.
Over the years, this Belgian family business has been able to modernize and maintain its leading position in the Moroccan market, underlines Mezzour. The minister is also convinced that CIF will be able to take up the challenge to support new agrifood companies offering them quality packaging that will allow them to capture the market in Morocco and also for export.
“We are proud to keep pace with this company, which has placed its trust in Morocco for more than 70 years, and we wish it complete success, and we count on it to keep pace with new industrial projects, especially in the field of food industry,” he adds.
Chairman of the CIF Supervisory Board Baron Bernard Del Marmol stressed that Morocco, under the visionary leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, has provided his company with the appropriate framework for industrial development, thanks to a number of structured projects launched, in particular the industrial port complex of Tanger Med, Africa’s first high-speed train TGV, the motorway networks, and the airports.
On the company celebrating its 70th anniversary, Del Marmol says, “This second extension of the factory and the other investments that accompany it will allow us to remain as the reference company in Morocco in the packaging industry, to support Morocco in its industrial and agricultural development, and to develop our exports.”
Belgium’s Ambassador to Morocco Veronique Petit considers that the history of CIF perfectly embodies many of the characteristics of the Belgian entrepreneurial spirit in Morocco, especially the presence of family companies, which are mostly small and medium enterprises, which occupy a position in the international market thanks to the quality of their products. She explained that this company, which has about 700 employees and an important share of the Moroccan market, cannot be described as a medium enterprise, but it has certainly maintained its family character.
Founded in 1951 in Tangier, Morocco, CIF has established itself as the leading manufacturer of PP woven bags, PP laminated bags, BOPP bags, and Kraft paper bags with a complete range of packaging solutions with infinite possibilities of quadichrome printing.
