Angola: 300,000 hectares for Italian investment in Agriculture

Luanda - Angola intends to provide 300,000 hectares of arable land to attract Italian investment in agriculture, said today to AGI the president of the Peasant Network Consortium, an organization that with the office of the Internationalization Agency of Italian Companies (ICE), in Luanda, promotes Angola's first presence at MacFrut faire, held in Rimini from 10 to 12 this month. Gentil Viana said that the plan for partnerships will be presented during the "Angola Partenariat" conference that is held during the event and whose objective is to submit to the appreciation and discussion a paradigm of joint ventures with Italian entities and other sources interested in investing in Angola.

According to the AGI's interlocutor, the plan is to "identify 100 farms with an average size of 3000 hectares each, totaling 300,000 hectares, with a low level of investment in infrastructures and productive capacities" them for partnerships. "They are lands with temperatures between 19 and 27 degrees Celsius and a rainfall ranging from 500 to 1500 mm / year, which will allow the production of a wide range of tropical products, as well as agricultural species adapted to temperate climates", he explained. In order to facilitate the materialization of the joint ventures, the Peasant Network Consortium does not establish minimum investment amounts, remaining open to other forms of cooperation, on the proposal of potential international partners. In addition, joint ventures are individually negotiated and their final format is defined on a case-by-case basis.

Gentil Viana said that the intended partnerships are directed in three aspects, namely development and management of agrarian farms and private rural extension of peasant cooperatives; Implementation and management of agro-industries absorbing Angolan agrarian raw material; export of agrarian and agro-industrial production. With these partnerships, Angola seeks to focus on exports, guaranteeing the immediate foreign exchange return on foreign investment; Creation of international joint ventures; Concessions for mixed enterprises, the exploitation of agricultural and urban land, including their infrastructures for 12 to 50 years; As well as making available the majority share capital of joint ventures to international partners. Another objective of the partnerships to be established is to give priority, free of interference, to foreign partners, leadership, definition of strategic orientation, as well as in the day-to-day management of the partnerships business.

"We know of the potential of Italy in the agribusiness segment. We need the knowledge and experience of Italian companies. But we also know that Italian companies are more focused on their own country, so the search for partnerships will be a great challenge for us", said the businessman. At MacFrut, where Angola hopes to promote its willingness to integrate the international agro-business production chains, the country will expose 10 tropical fruits that it intends to export through partnerships. These are banana, pineapple, mango, papaya, lime, banana bread, cassava, avocado, passion fruit and guavas.

"Europe imports some ? 130 billion annually in agro-food goods and we want a part of this business. After all, we have 38 million of arable hectares still to work, 25 million peopels willing to work and a strategy of diversification centered on the agrarian economy, supported and promoted by the Government", he said. Angola participates in MacFrut with a delegation of 21 members, including representatives from banks, agricultural companies, airport operators and food distributors. The group arrives in Rimini on 9 May.