Angola is a potentially rich agricultural country, with fertile soils, a favourable climate, and about 57.4 million ha of agricultural land, including more than 5.0 million ha of arable land. Banana, citrus, coffee, and pineapple are few of the major producing fruits in the country.
The country’s agriculture market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period (2020-2025).
Conducive government policies are promoting agriculture in Angola. The government has invested USD 200 million in capital goods and USD 150 million in consumable goods in order to increase agriculture production in the country.
Similarly, the government has invested USD 1.2 billion in agriculture as a part of the 2009-2012 investment plan, in order to encourage the private sectors to develop the agriculture sector in the country. Angola Ministry of agriculture and Rural Development is collaborating with the private sector to achieve objectives, like distribution of seeds and tools, reconstruction of rural infrastructure and others.
Angola coffee industry
Prior to independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola had a flourishing tradition of family-based farming and was self-sufficient in all major cash crops in particular coffee and sugar.
The Angola coffee industry was once dominated by large coffee plantations that produced about seventy percent of the country’s annual coffee crop. These large coffee farms included coffee processing facilities and were primarily managed by Portuguese settlers.
The country was the third largest producer of coffee until 1973 while controlled by Portugal. Angolan coffee was at its pick of excellency of quality during the presidency of Eurico de Azevedo Noronha of the Instituto do Café de Angola, until his death in 1973.
Angola exported 5.2 million sacks of coffee in 1974, each weighing 60 kilos, or about 132 pounds. Exports are expected to total 283,000 sacks for 1984.
War for independence
Coffee is one of the major crops grown in the country before the onset of civil war. With the outbreak of the Angolan civil war in 1975, the Portuguese coffee planters left their plantations, and coffee cultivation decayed.; also lack of investment severely hindered the agriculture and fisheries sectors, and the country has been dependent on food imports since 1990. After 30 years, there were only a few of the then Angolan foremen who still had the appropriate know-how to cultivate coffee.
The new development
The rebirth of the Angola coffee industry is foreseen as a massive one following a recent production of 700 tons instead of the anticipated 500 tons. The country aims to reclaim its crown, Angola was a leading producer of Robusta coffee between the 1950s to 1976.
The favourable climatic conditions for crop production and favourable government policies encouraging the participation of private players in developing the agriculture sector, such as the National Medium-term Development Plan for the Agricultural Sector (PDMPSA) are some of the factors driving the market growth.
The Angola Ministry of Agriculture has made strategic policies to make Angolan coffee competitive again in the region. The establishment of the Angolan National Coffee Institute (INCA) which is responsible government body for coffee sector development, aiming to attract private investors for public-private partnership (PPP) and the establishment of ‘coffee fund’ for smallholder farmers.
These initiatives help in enhancing the production of coffee, thereby increasing the market for coffee in the region. Angola expects to produce 50,000 tons of coffee by 2022, six times more than the production of 8,000 tonnes recorded in the period from September 2016 to June 2017.
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