Namakia

Today, the community of Namakia and its surroundings has a population of about 24,000 permanent residents.

The small village of Namakia and its surroundings, including the province of Mahajanga on the West Coastal side of Madagascar were created in 1929 around a sugar plantation, a sugar factory and a distillery. This industrial agriculture, named “Sucrerie Marseillaise de Madagascar” (the Sugar Factory of Marseilles) came to life from several investments from wealthy industrials living in Marseilles to bring sugar to the sugar factory in Marseilles.

The Sugar factory became nationalized in 1977, and it started its slow decline. In 2007, the production went from 30,000 Tonnes of sugar production to less than 10,000 Tonnes.

In 2007, the Chinese group, COMPLANT, took over the location what was left of the industrial and agricultural complexes.

The COMPLANT group invested a lot in the site to try to renew the factory and industry production.

Like the rest of Madagascar, the situation of the population in Namakia is very precarious.

French Version of the Document: https://madagascarnamakia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Namakia et contexte environnemental.pdf