The Angolan government announced on Tuesday (19) that corn production reached 3.6 million tons in the 2024-25 agricultural season, but it was necessary to import an additional 350,000 tons, which cost $123 million, to meet domestic demand.
According to Angola’s Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, who led a meeting between the Executive, industrialists, and corn producers, there is still a need to bring these two market operators closer together, and the government must bridge that gap.
The minister pointed out that the demand for corn is growing, as there is increasing demand, and the country has not yet achieved self-sufficiency in its production.
“We understand that, in relation to corn, in order to achieve absolute security, we will have to triple what we produce today, so that we can build up reserve stocks, but we need to do this safely. Producers must have guaranteed access to the market, and those in the processing industry must also have the guarantee that, if necessary, corn will be available,” said Massano.
The Minister of State for Economic Coordination stressed that this is an important crop and is at the center of the country’s food security agenda, advocating for an increase in production volume and more producers, “whether they are businesses or family farms.”
In his speech, he also called on producers and manufacturers to improve communication and dialogue between themselves, expressing the government’s willingness to mediate in this relationship.
“What is happening is that producers, those in the primary sector, often tell us that they are unable to sell their production, but then we have manufacturers who say that they are not always able to find the product,” he explained.
Faced with this situation, the government is obliged, despite remaining firm in its protection of domestic producers, “to authorize the importation of corn on an ad hoc basis” in order to maintain the production cycle, he stressed.
“Whenever authorization is given to import corn, we get less positive reactions from producers, who claim to have corn available, but industrialists are not always able to identify that corn,” he emphasized.
Speaking to the press, the president of Indústrias Moageiras de Milho, António Aragão, said that they currently purchase 30% of domestic corn for their production, with the remaining quantities being imported.
The association leader stressed that the highest production and quality is found in the corridor between the provinces of Malanje and Cuanza Norte, but other locations in southern Angola, such as Huambo and Benguela, have shown some positive signs.
Aragão pointed out that the main challenge is access to foreign currency to import 70% of their main raw material, with the quality of roads and high transportation costs being the problems they face in acquiring local production.
Source: Lusa
