Africa-Press – Angola. A total of 6,500 tons of coffee have been harvested every year in Angola to supply the domestic and foreign markets, the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Farming, Castro Camarada, said Saturday in Calandula, Malanje province.
Speaking at the opening of the National Coffee Harvest Campaign, Castro Camarada said the majority of the harvest is produced by the family sector.
The official explained that the production involved around 17,000 producers and covered an area of 36,000 hectares, which he considered insufficient to cover the country’s needs, underlining that the government is committed to empower coffee growers to increase production.
Camarada said there are possibilities for increasing production by revitalizing old coffee farms throughout the country and planting new fields, having challenged young farmers to take up this crop, with support from the state and funding from banks.
The vice-governor of Malanje for the Political, Economic and Social sector, Franco Mufinda on his turn said the province has 530 coffee producers, who produce 33 tons a year.
He expressed the government’s intention to continue to intercede with a view to increase support to coffee growers, through training and assistance, and called for the creation of cooperatives and the legalization of coffee-growing fields, in order to facilitate the acquisition of financing and other benefits.
The event culminated in the handing over of agricultural tools to the coffee growers, to encourage them to increase production. The beneficiaries praised the gesture, which will help to improve productivity in Calandula and in Malanje province in general.
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