Lusa - Business News - Angola: Country needs 10,000 sugarcane producers to reduce imports

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Lusa - Business News - Angola: Country needs 10,000 sugarcane producers to reduce imports

Luanda, Dec.11,2019 (Lusa) - The Angolan government on Wednesday said that the country needs 10,000 sugar cane producers to reduce imports of this product, which from January to October 2019 alone cost the state $137 million (€123.4 million).
According to the Angolan secretary of state for the economy, Sérgio Santos, Biocom, the only Angolan company that produces sugar and ethanol, can grind 2 million tonnes of sugarcane a year but produces only half due to lack of sugarcane production.
"We hope that sugarcane producers will emerge to produce sugarcane. We have been talking with producers and Biocom and it is viable to produce sugarcane within 40 kilometres of the company's plant," Santos said at a press conference on Wednesday.
According to the government, which challenged Angolan producers to invest in the production of sugarcane, viable projects for that purpose will have guaranteed funding under the Credit Support Programme (PAC).
"We are inviting those who have projects and need funding to do so. We estimate that we can serve production cooperatives of up to 10,000 producers and we need them to emerge because it is not the state that will produce sugarcane," he said.
The Angolan government announced at the press conference, which took place today in Luanda, that from January to October 2019 $1.3 billion (€1.17 billion) was spent on food imports, pointing out the urgent need to focus on national production.
At least 54 products monitored by the Angolan Ministry of Economy and Planning, as part of the National Production Programme, Export Diversification and Import Substitution (PRODESI), could be produced in Angola, the authorities said.
The PAC, the Angolan secretary of state said, has $2 billion (€1.8 billion) available to replace imports and diversify exports.
DIAS/IMYN // ADB.
Lusa

Agency : LUSA
Date : 2019-12-12 09:32:00

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