Angola strives to revive top coffee producer status in Africa. The country may play again a leading role in coffee production of Africa as the country was striving to revive its coffee plantation and production, Secretary General of the Inter-African Coffee Organization Frederick Kawuama said here on Friday.
Frederick made the prediction when speaking to the press after meeting with Angolan Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Manuel Augusto to discuss cooperation in the coffee sector in Africa.
The official said the coffee sector is being relaunched in Angola and conditions were being created to regain the status of the major coffee producing country in Africa.
Angola took over the presidency of the Inter-African Coffee Organization in November 2014, in Kampala, Uganda, at its 54th annual general assembly that brought together major coffee producing countries of the continent.
Angola was the third largest producer of coffee until 1973 and coffee contributed largely to the economy of Angola’s northwestern area, including the Uige province.
Coffee production was started by the Portuguese colonialists in the 1830s and soon became a cash crop on approximately 2,000 Angolan plantations in 1970s.
However, coffee production was devastated by decades of armed conflicts which ended in 2002, and the Angolan government planned to revive the coffee sector as part of its efforts to diversify its oil dependent economy.
Economists estimated that the investment required to revive unproductive coffee plants stood at some 230 million U.S. dollars. including the opening up of new roads leading to the plantations.
