A Mozambican raised Portuguese, Engº. Mario de Matos possesses over 40 years’ experience in the Agriculture and Agro-industrial sectors, devoting most of his professional career to Africa, with proven experience in the development of agriculture projects in Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
In addition, he has participated in numerous projects in Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand), Central and South America (Dominican Republic, Porto Rico and Brazil), Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, England, and Germany), MENA (Egypt and Iran), Australia, and the US.

Mr. de Matos’ expertise extends to greenfield and brownfield project appraisals and evaluations, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, and managing large commercial agriculture and agro-industrial projects across a wide range of social, technical, and cultural environments.

He has experience designing and developing capacity-building activities, securing finance for private-sector and PPP projects, and organising and managing workshops.

Mario is co-author of the Elsevier-published book on Sugar Cane Biorefinery Technology and Perspectives.
This book is an updated review of the sugar cane biorefinery global scenario, outlining the importance of this crop from a chemical, energy and environmental sustainability point of view, while also addressing, with total transparency, the controversial issues involving energy cane in the dilemma of food vs fuel, environmental impact, as well as production technology of first- and second-generation ENA.

Mário received his Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Sciences in 1975 from Escola Superior Agraria Dr. J. A. Lacerda, at Vila Pery, Mozambique and is a member of:

• American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists – Louisiana Division;
• Australian Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Australia;
• S.A. Sugar Technologists Association, South Africa; 
• Associação Portuguesa de Ciências Agrárias, Portugal; 
• Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, Portugal; 
• Soils Sciences Society of Nigeria.