Africa-Press – Angola. Yokimbo corn flour, produced at the Catumbela Industrial Complex (PDIC), is highlighted among the food segment products that attract the most attention at the 13th edition of the Benguela International Fair (FIB 2024).
Located in phase II of the PDIC, Yokimbo is a corn processing factory owned by the company Fonseca e Irmãos Indústria SA, opened in 2018, with a production capacity of 250 tons per day.
This manufacturing unit of the Fonseca e Irmãos group – established in 1951 in the retail trade of food goods – also has three silos, with a storage capacity of four thousand tons of corn.
Present at FIB to attract customers, the deputy head of the production shift at this factory, José Manuel Domingos, says that the objective is to make cornmeal even better known under the name Yokimbo, as it is the staple food of the Angolan population.
In fact, José Manuel Domingos said that 25 kilo bags of flour and state-of-the-art equipment that the new mill uses are available at the stand, aiming for the quality of the final product.
In this edition of FIB, the factory also presents other products derived from corn to the public, such as gritz, a raw material used in the production of lighter beers, and bran for animal feed.
José Manuel Domingos pointed out that Yokimbo products are already flooding the national market, predominating in large commercial areas, especially in the north of the country.
Given this great demand, he informed that the start of the expansion of the industry is in the works this year, with the implementation of the new Yokimbo factory, in the province of Luanda.
Export in sight
After receiving ISO 9001.2015 certification, a guarantee of superior product quality, José Manuel Domingos reports that the Yokimbo factory is planning “high flights”.
The project portfolio includes the export of products, with priority to neighboring countries.
For now, he guaranteed that one-kilo sachets of corn flour and Yokimbo rolls will soon be available across the country, to help families in this phase of pressing social needs.
Shortage of raw materials.
In the interview, he admitted the shortage of corn, as farmers have not been able to meet the factory’s demand, which is why it has been producing alternately in recent days.
“We have already produced 220 tons of products per day in 2023”, he recalled, indicating that a large part of the corn has been acquired from some farms in the province of Malanje.
There is such a shortage of raw materials that José says that the three silos have not reached their peak capacity in terms of storage for a long time, which ends up limiting production.
In 1970, the company Fonseca e Irmãos began the process of transforming corn to produce flour (cornmeal), with the opening of the Grinding facilities.
In 2018, it invested in improving and expanding the business structure of Sociedade de Moagem, creating the new factory called Yokimbo.
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