The European Union (EU) will finance with 8.8 million euros a project for the development of coffee culture in Angola, to be carried out over a period of five years, in three provinces of the country, that organisation announced today.
The project, called “Mukafé”, is financed by the EU through the French Development Agency (AFD), and will be applied in the provinces of Uíje, Kwanza Sul and Kwanza Norte.
In his speech, the French Ambassador to Angola, Daniel Vosgien, said that this project is important and enriches the content of bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector, with the revitalisation of the coffee sector in Angola.
“Through the combined action of the French embassy and AFD teams, and within the framework of our bilateral cooperation agreement signed in 2018 with Angola (…), we want to provide the most comprehensive and pragmatic support possible to this coffee sector, which as we all know is crucial for the diversification of the Angolan economy and its ability to create quality jobs particularly in rural areas,” he said.
The French diplomat assured “France’s strong interest in using this project to help relaunch the coffee sector in Angola, with a special focus on quality and support for small producers, their training and improving their access to the market”.
Speaking to the press, the coordinator of the “Mukafé” project, Júlia Ferreira, stressed that the three beneficiary provinces have great potential in the production of robusta coffee, with around 500,000 producers expected to be included in the project.
In turn, the director of the National Coffee Institute, Vasco Gonçalves, stressed that coffee production in Angola covers about 35,000 hectares in ten of the country’s 18 provinces.
Vasco Gonçalves pointed out as main constraints the lack of financing for production, access difficulties, namely the tertiary roads leading to coffee farms, access to agricultural inputs, specifically hoes and machetes.
“The country has the potential to produce more than 500,000 tonnes of coffee, but at the moment due to the difficulties we face we are producing about 6,000 tonnes of commercial coffee – which we control and record – and are exporting about 1,000 tonnes of commercial coffee per year,” he said.
The official emphasised that there is also a need to renew the seedlings, given that “the plantations are practically aged”.
“We need to produce at least 40 million seedlings annually to have about 20,000 hectares renewed each year,” noted Vasco Gonçalves, emphasising the need for incentives to attract young people “to agricultural production and especially coffee production”.
“What we see today, although we already have some young people producing coffee, but so far it is an activity that is fundamentally based on the hands of people already of a certain age, which does not help much in the development of coffee culture”, he emphasised.
In 2021, the provinces of Uíje, Kwanza Norte and Kwanza Sul produced 82.3% of national production.
Angola produced 243,780 tonnes in 1973 and exported 223,800 tonnes in 1974, worth US$182.4 million (€163.1 million), making it the fourth largest coffee exporter.
Lusa
