Banana, the green diamond to diversify Angola's economy

Local farmers, municipal associations and cooperatives and regional sector representatives gathered at the 10th edition of the banana fair.

After four days of festivities, the banana fair ends in Angola. Local farmers, associations and cooperatives from several municipalities joined representatives of the sector from other regions of the country to discuss market expansion and their production strength.

Maria Antonia Nelumba, governor of the province of Bengo, spoke about this expanding sector: "We will continue to produce and invest in banana processing, in order to take advantage of the entire production chain," she said.

This tenth edition exceeded the expectations of the organizers in terms of attendance and earnings. According to their figures, the 368 exhibitors present, including 324 locals from Bengo, achieved a turnover of 129 million 515 thousand kwanzas, higher than the 100 million expected by the organization.

"We will continue to produce and conquer markets. Our operating philosophy foresees a production of 70% for the domestic market and 30% for export. We export to various countries; in Europe, South Africa, Namibia, DR Congo also in Russia and we will continue to produce and conquer markets", indicated Helder Cardete, representative of Novagrolíder.

Since Angolan President Joao Lourenço launched the challenge of diversifying the Angolan economy through agriculture to not rely solely on oil and invest in this imperishable sector, the banana has become Angola's green diamond to diversify the economy.

Visitors to the fair were able to shop and take advantage of the advantageous prices: "Well, the prices are affordable, a bunch of bananas costs 2,000.00 kwanzas, 3,000.00 kwanzas, I am really satisfied" rejoiced Ester Jamba, a visitor to the fair.

Competition in the banana production sector is very strong on the continent. Some companies are investing in high technologies to increase their production. However, this involves using a specialized and technical workforce to train staff on the continent. A costly investment in the short term so that in the long term, this service import is replaced by a trained local workforce .

"In truth (reality) we brought a large quantity of bananas from the municipality of Nambuangongo, good bananas of very good quality and the fair is going very very well and there is very strong competition," explained Celma, exhibitor for the first time.

Angola is the largest banana producer in Africa and the seventh largest in the world, with a supply of more than four million tonnes per year according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).