Madagascar

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and EMM supplies it almost entirely through Toamasina, with Mahajanga and Toliara taking regional traffic. The island is bigger than it looks on a map - Antananarivo is 350 km of mountain road from the main port - and the internal roads deteriorate badly in the wet season, so timing a shipment matters here more than in most places. We aim to land equipment between May and October where the customer has any flexibility at all.

Vanilla, textiles, mining

Madagascar produces most of the world's vanilla, and the SAVA region around Sambava and Antalaha buys curing, drying, grading, sorting and vacuum packing equipment. The zone franche textile and garment factories around Antananarivo and Antsirabe are a substantial market for industrial sewing, cutting, knitting, pressing, laundry and finishing machinery. Mining at Ambatovy for nickel and cobalt, the ilmenite operations at Fort Dauphin and the graphite projects take crushing, grinding, pumps, conveying and laboratory plant. Agro-processing covers rice milling, which is everywhere, plus clove and pepper processing, essential oil distillation, lychee and cocoa handling, and sugar at Ambilobe and Nosy Be. Fisheries and shrimp farming buy ice, freezing and cold chain equipment.

Cyclones and language

The east coast is directly in the cyclone track from November to April and takes direct hits regularly. We crate for it, advise on anchoring and building ratings for outdoor equipment, and strongly recommend holding critical spares on the island rather than planning a resupply mid-season. Documentation and control panel markings in French are available and usually preferred. Motors are wound for 380 V three phase at 50 Hz, with 220 V single phase for light loads, with supply quality variable outside the capital, so stabilisers and standby generation are often part of the package.

Tell us the region and the season you need it running by and we will plan the shipment backwards from that.