Angola works to revive coffee plantations

LUANDA – Angola, dependent on its oil and diamond exports, is working to revive its moribund coffee plantations to diversify its economy and revive a farm sector shattered by decades of civil war.

Once the world’s fourth-biggest coffee exporter, most of Angola’s colonial-era plantations were destroyed during three decades of civil war which followed independence in 1975.Seven years into peace, the southern African country is now spending millions of dollars reinvigorating its coffee industry.’Angola’s robusta (coffee) bean is the best robusta in the world,’ Mayimona Romulo, an engineer from the National Coffee Institute, told AFP.’We have excellent conditions for growing coffee here in terms of climate and rainfall. As well as robusta varieties, we’re starting to grow arabica in the central highlands.’This year’s harvest has just started and we think it is going to be a good one,’ he added.At its height in the 1970s, Angola was producing 228 000 tons of coffee from 2 500 large commercial farms and 250 000 smallholders.By 1985, just 34 state-owned companies produced less than 9 000 tons and by 2007 production was down to around 2 000 tons.While production fell, global coffee prices were soaring. Last year, robusta prices jumped 45 per cent to US$2 650 a ton.That focused Angola’s attention on coffee, now seen as a central plank of the plan to reinvigorate farming.’Coffee is very important for the future of Angola,’ Economy Minister Manuel Nunes Jr told AFP on the sidelines of a farm trade fair.’Coffee and all agro-industry is fundamental to the development of our society because it creates jobs, a lot more than the oil industry does.’Agriculture Minister Pedro Canga was unable to give specific figures but said the government ‘was determined to create the best conditions for Angola’s coffee sector’ through a mix of public and private investments.Among the private investors are BelaNegra, which prides itself on its 100 per cent organic robusta beans.’There is a lot of potential here. We are in the process of finalising paperwork for some export deals to the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain, so we hope in the next few months Angolan coffee will be available in these places,’ Luiz Gonzaga, the firm’s commercial manager, told AFPOn a smaller scale, the US government and oil giant Chevron are funding a six-million-dollar scheme called Pro-Agro to increase yields and boost sales from banana plantations and coffee smallholders.’Coffee lends itself to co-operatives and associations because you need partnerships for purchasing plants and machines and for access to storage,’ said Michael Nehrbrass, a US aid programme officer.’You also get a better price if you market on a larger scale.’Attracting buyers is not proving so easy – one British company said its Pro-Agro deal proved unworkable.’It was no longer financially viable,’ a spokesman from the firm, which requested not to be named, told AFP. ‘We only managed to harvest 80 tons for export in two years.’Also sceptical about the strength of Angola’s coffee market is Sergio Calundungo, general director of Action for Rural Development and the Environment.’Everybody talks about Angola being a great exporter of coffee but they seem to forget that this was during colonial times when it was basically Angolan slaves working on the plantations,’ he said.’To grow coffee, you need very large areas of land, you need good infrastructure like treatment areas and storage, and crucially, it does not provide food to the local population.’But the local industry remains positive, said Pascoal Miranda, who co-ordinates a coffee institute project in Kwanza Sul.’Coffee is for always,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to run out like oil. I believe that our country can only gain from the coffee sector.’-Nampa-AFP