Africa-Press – Angola. A memorandum of understanding aimed at facilitating access to credit for micro, small and medium-sized sugarcane producers in Capanda, Cacuso, was initialed by the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) and the Companhia de Bioenergy of Angola (BIOCOM).
This memorandum is intended to encourage the cultivation of sugarcane and boost the production of sugar, ethanol and electricity in the Company.
Aligned with the Program to Support Production, Diversification of Exports and Substitution of Imports (PRODESI), the agreement was signed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the FGC, Luzayadio Simba, and by the director general of BIOCOM, Uirá Coelho Ribeiro.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the FGC, Luzayadio Simba, stressed that, as part of the support to increase national production, the Credit Guarantee Fund will allocate 25 billion kwanzas for agriculture, which includes sugar cane. .
He said that each farmer will be able to benefit from an amount of up to five million US dollars to reinforce the production of sugar cane, which will later be acquired in full by the factory.
“At this time, when agreements have already been signed with commercial banks, the Fund is working with the Provincial Government of Malanje to survey the producers of that crop in the region”, he said.
In turn, Biocom’s deputy director general, Otília Viegas, highlighted the importance of the memorandum for increasing the availability of raw materials, so as to produce according to the factory’s installed capacity and allow covering 60 percent of the need of the country in terms of sugar, until at least 2026.
Currently, the unit is able to meet only 40 percent of national demand.
He said that the producers covered will have the technical support of BIOCOM, in order to guarantee the cultivation of the specific sugarcane.
Meanwhile, the municipal administrator of Cacuso, Manuel Van-Dúnem, highlighted the profitability that the agreement could bring to peasant families in the municipality of Cacuso.
He ensured that the transfer of land to farmers’ cooperatives was safeguarded.
He stressed that, at this point, 26 cooperatives have already been catalogued.
Dedicated to the production of sugar, ethanol and electricity, Biocom is installed in the PAC (Polo Agro-Industrial de Capanda), in the province of Malanje, municipality of Cacuso, in an area of 81 thousand 201 hectares, of which 70 thousand 106 are arable and 11 thousand 95 earmarked for the permanent preservation of native vegetation.
For this year, it plans to produce 120,000 tons of sugar, 19,000 cubic meters of ethanol and 63 megawatts of electricity.
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