Luanda - Angola plans to increase chicken meat production from 50,000 to around 300,000 tons/year in the short term, to meet the domestic market demand, the Secretary of State for Forestry, João da Cunha said on Monday in Luanda.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the Government will continue to invest heavily in promoting grain production, to meet the need for raw material, specifically corn and soybeans,' said João da Cunha, considering that the production of these products has a very promising market in the country.
João da Cunha was speaking at a press conference at the end of a meeting between the Government and members of the Angolan Poultry Farmers Association, chaired by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano.
The Secretary of State, in turn, said that, at the same time, it is necessary for entrepreneurs to transform this deficit into potentiality, in the short and medium term, to increase animal feed and the consequent volume of chicken meat production, as well as reduce imports, which cost about US$170 million per year.
He stated that there are conditions to achieve self-sufficiency in chicken meat and eggs, from the moment that the deficit of raw material for the development of poultry farming is made up for it.
In this sense, he said that, later this year, a unit for the transformation of soybeans into animal feed, a process for the production of meal and oil, will start operating, and assured poultry farmers, in a first phase, the import of this product, as well as corn, so that they can be processed internally.
João da Cunha reiterated the Government's commitment to financing producers through the Agrarian Development Support Fund (FADA), commercial banking, with the security of the Credit Guarantee Fund, the Angolan Development Bank (BDA), as well as programs to promote agriculture.
He stressed that the country is in the process of relaunching national production, in particular basic food products, having registered an average growth of around six percent per year, which translates into a significant increase in domestic production and increasingly guarantees the food and nutritional security of Angolans.
On the other hand, he announced the acquisition, by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, of agricultural inputs, 40 thousand tons of fertilizers, already distributed by the 18 provinces of the country, and another 250 thousand tons should arrive in the coming days.
Taking the floor, the president of the Association of Poultry Farmers of Angola, Rui Santos, said that the acquisition of raw material for the production of feed was at the heart of the meeting, and he is satisfied with the promises to overcome the main obstacles to the development of chicken meat and egg production in Angola, he said.
He considered that to exceed the current production of 50,000 tons of chicken, the 120 members need 30,000 tons of feed, of which 60 percent is corn and 40 percent is soybeans.
The general director of the company that produces poultry development equipment, Jamir Baptista, guarantees that his industry has the installed capacity to serve the national market, as long as it is financed. OPF/VC/DOJ
