Luanda, Angola, 08 May – the Angolan government presented a pilot project Thursday for coffee production in the municipality of Amboim, in Cuajnza province, which it hopes will re-launch the sector in Angola, which at one time was the world’s fourth-largest producer.

“We hope that this project will be a catalyst for re-launching coffee production in Angola, which was significant in the past,” said Angola’s Agriculture minister, Gilberto Lutukuta.

In the speech he gave at the presentation ceremony, Lutukuta said that the Angolan government, “will do everything to ensure the success of the project,” which involves an investment of US$8.5 million..

The project plans to grow robusta coffee in an area of some 17,000 hectares in the municipality of Amboim, where it is hoped to reach annual production of 40,000 tons.

Currently, coffee production in Amboim totals around 900 tons per year, with just 1,900 hectares of land given over to its production.

In total, the project presented will involve around 4,000 rural families in the region, totaling some 30,000 people.

At the beginning of the 1970s Angola had annual production of over 200,000 tons of coffee, and was the world’s fourth-largest producer of the commodity.

The main coffee production regions were the provinces of Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, Uíge and Bengo. (macauhub)