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24 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Mark Clydesdale BZO
Carlos Moco
Angola’s leading exports. To promote its
bananas, Caxito held its first Banana Fair
in February. Exhibitors from the provinces
of Kwanza Norte, Bengo, Benguela, Zaire,
Uíge, Kwanza Sul, Malange and Luanda
attended the event.
Abrahão Pio dos Santos Gourgel,
Angola’s Minister of Economy, said the
country might start exporting bananas
within the next two years, judging by
the growth recorded of this product.
Conditions, he said, had been created to
ensure a continued increase of quality
through planting systems and improved
technical assistance.
Agrolider, the Angolan agribusiness
giant and Caxito Banana Fair prizewinner,
forecasts it will produce 100,000 tonnes of
the fruit in the 2012-13 growing season,
compared with 54,000 tonnes in the
previous harvest.
Part of Agrolider’s crop comes from
the 2,500-hectare Caxito Rega irrigated
farming area, located in a former sugar
plantation near provincial capital Caxito.
Caxito Rega a government-managed
initiative with 70 per cent state ownership
was established in 2008.
An existing irrigation system including
23km of channels was renovated. Some
1,600 hectares of Caxito Rega are cultivated
by private companies and the rest by
family farmers and individuals.
A major step was taken to process
produce at the site in August 2012 when
a factory was opened, initially to process
and pack dried bananas and tomato
paste and pulp. Financed by Germany’s
Deutsche Bank and installed by Spain’s
Incatema Consulting, the plant has the
capacity to process 2.5 tonnes of tomatoes
and 750kg of dried bananas an hour. The
165 staff operators were trained in Spain
and Angola.
The crucial role played by process
plants such as these is that they absorb
excess produce, especially from small
farmers. This gives them an incentive to
grow greater volumes and gain a more
secure income, and also reduces wastage.
A key component of the project was the
arrival of electricity from the renovation of
the Mabubas Dam in June 2012. The dam
now has 25.6MW capacity compared to
17.8MW two decades ago just before it
stopped operating. Mabubas is initially
also supplying Luanda and Caxito but will
later extend power deliveries to the rest
of Bengo. Until now the region had been
using expensive diesel generators to make
up for the energy shortage.
The fertility of Bengo’s soils is
impressive. Agrolider’s 350-hectare
farming operations in Caxito also produce
papaya, melons, water melons and
eggplants. The company plans to grow
dessert grapes, mangoes, oranges and
tangerines at the site. Agrolider has another
145-hectare plantation at Bom Jesus where
it produces bananas, mangoes and grapes.
Bengo’s attractiveness as a place to
produce and process fruit has not been
Angoflex spoolbase, Barra do Dande
lost on foreign companies. Ghana’s
ambassador visited the province recently
and said Ghanaian company Blue
Skies planned to produce mango and
pineapple concentrate for its juice brand.
The ambassador added that a Ghanaian
company was also considering setting up
a tyre plant in Bengo.
Coca-Cola has recently built a $36
million bottling plant at Bom Jesus
alongside the Kwanza River. The factory
not only has access to water but is well
placed for accessing Angola’s main
highways for its product distribution.
Tourism expansion
PROVINCE
Another money-spinner shared by Bengo,
Icolo e Bengo, and especially Kissama, is
tourism. These areas can be reached easily
by new highways heading south and east
from the capital.
Kissama is home to Angola’s bestknown
and most accessible wildlife
park, while Icolo e Bengo contains the
historic birthplace of Agostinho Neto, the
country’s first president, at Kaxicane near
Catete, and the national Christian shrine
of Muxima. Both sites are picturesquely
located alongside a wide section of the
slow-moving Kwanza River.
Also on the river the church of Our
Lady of Muxima, reputedly a site of
miracles, dates from the 16th century and
is the object of pilgrimages, especially in
September, when the faithful camp around
the shrine.
Muxima township is also overlooked
by an imposing Portuguese colonial fort
which affords dramatic views over the
rich lands along the banks of the Kwanza.
The fort was the scene of fighting between
Dutch and Portuguese troops in the 17th
century when the two maritime powers
fought each other around the globe, from
Brazil to the Far East.
Access to Muxima was recently
enhanced by the building of a new
highway which includes Angola’s longest
bridge at Cabala. Better communications
from Luanda and the rest of the country
to Muxima facilitated the arrival of an
estimated 500,000 people to the shrine this
year. The Bishop of Viana compared the
DECEMBER 2012 25