• Azura plans a $21.4 million investment in Dakhla to expand agroindustrial operations.
• The move follows the UN Security Council’s endorsement of Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
• The project will boost production and job creation in Morocco’s southern provinces.

The Franco-Moroccan agrifood group Azura announced on November 1 an investment of 200 million dirhams ($21.4 million) in Dakhla. The move comes shortly after the UN Security Council reaffirmed Morocco’s autonomy plan as the framework for future negotiations on Western Sahara.

With this investment, the company, founded in 1988, aims to strengthen its operations in the region and create new jobs in the southern provinces, according to details reported by the local newspaper LeDesk.

Azura, which supplies major retail chains mainly in France, is one of the world’s leading producers of cherry tomatoes, cultivating more than 1,200 hectares, including 436 hectares in Dakhla.

In Dakhla—the second-largest city in Western Sahara after Laâyoune—the company also operates a 200-hectare aquaculture site focused on producing European clams. The site includes a hatchery and 15 growth parks.

More broadly, this investment aligns with the renewed trade framework between Morocco and the European Union, which extends preferential customs treatment to Western Sahara products and introduces new rules on labeling horticultural exports from the territory.

Azura has already invested a cumulative 1.5 billion dirhams ($161 million) in Western Sahara and created more than 7,000 direct jobs in Dakhla. In 2024, the group exported 188,000 tons of cherry tomatoes and achieved consolidated revenues of 5.5 billion dirhams ($590 million).