Market Intelligence
Value-Added Agriculture Agricultural Equipment and Machinery Angola

Angola Agribusiness Cold Chain Industry

Market Snapshot for Angola Cold Chain Industry

Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for most of Angola’s population of 36 million, but more than half of the country’s food is still imported. Angola holds tremendous agriculture potential with fertile soils, abundant water, and a favorable climate. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MINAGRIF) estimates that Angola has almost 58 million hectares available for agricultural development, including 35 million hectares of arable land. Of the arable land, approximately 15 percent is currently cultivated, and 20 percent is suitable for irrigation.

Angola’s main agricultural crops include cassava, corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soy, bananas, coffee, rice, vegetables, and fruits. However, domestic agricultural production capacity does not meet local demand. The most fertile regions are in the provinces of Benguela, Bie, Cunene, Huambo, Cuanza Sul, Cuando Kubango, and Namibe. The rainy season is from October to May, which is considered the prime season for vegetable cultivation. Greenhouse gases and irrigation, which expand the growing seasons, are not widely used in Angola.  

Meat and Poultry in Angola

Poultry production has increased slightly, yet inconsistently over the last five years. As a result, most chicken products in the market are currently imported from countries like the United States and Brazil to meet demand. Angola’s livestock farming is located primarily in the southern part of the country and is based on natural pasture grazing. Beef is the second largest agricultural product after cassava. Other livestock, such as goats, pigs, and chicken are raised mainly by small-scale farmers as subsistence food sources. In 2020, the Cooperative of Cattle Producers of Southern Angola estimated that Angola has a cattle population of approximately 3.5 million heads.

There are two main factors affecting food security in Angola – agricultural productivity and lower than average crop yields, and poor post-harvest quality. With respect to post-harvest quality, it’s important to note that all subsectors of food production in Angola face huge challenges due to the lack of sufficient and adequate (cold) storage facilities at all points along the supply chain in Angola.

Angola’s Food Security Development Goals

A featured element of the Angolan Government’s National Development Plan for 2018-2022 was agricultural development to diversify the economy and build domestic food production capacity that will decrease the country’s dependence on imported food.  To support this development goal, the Angolan Government issued, in 2019, the Presidential Decree 113/19 for PAPE (Action Plan for Employment Promotion). The program is funded by the Angolan Government’s annual budget and national oil fund and is designed to increase diversified local food production and create jobs.  Food security and increasing local food production is a national priority garnering Presidential-level engagement and attention.

The Angolan Government’s strategies such as the National Development Plan 2023-2027, the Angola 2050 Long-Term Strategy, and the Blue Economy Strategy focus on increasing national food production to feed the local population and generate excess products for export.  The Angolan Government focuses on overarching plans such as PLANAGRÃO (grain production), PLANAPECUÁRIA (livestock), and PLANAPESCA (fishing) to implement this national policy and create the infrastructure needed to support Angola’s food security and export goals. To meet these goals, Angola requires U.S. inputs of all kinds (i.e., machinery, silos, and irrigation systems) to increase productivity and farm output and increase quality control from the farm to the market.

Focusing on post-harvest quality, crops are harvested, stored, and transported to the marketplace in non-refrigerated vehicles and stored in non-refrigerated storage containers. The lack of appropriate general storage and cold storage covering the whole chain from the farms to the marketplaces drastically affects the lifespan of crops, seafood, poultry, livestock, and dairy. Infrastructure to preserve and store produce correctly is at low capacity.  There is even a concern that the lack of a sufficient cold-storage supply chain could also affect the distribution of vaccines and medicines. In short, the supply chain and logistics system need U.S. solutions and technologies to improve efficiencies.

Key Stakeholders

The Angolan Government is the key player in food security and the main end-user for large-scale agricultural products, including infrastructure. Although food security is a national priority, with a basic level of public funding, U.S. companies must offer creative ways to fund their projects and increase government interest.  Of note, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries was recently separated into two, separate ministries.  The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. Despite some public initiatives, post-harvest loss is still a big challenge in Angola due to rotting, mechanical damage (breakdown), poor handling, improper management and logistics, and sanitary problems in factories and along the supply chain in Angola.

There are some private initiatives across the country that include companies like Mokbel International, Starone Lda., Carrinho, and local supermarket chains that have been driving cold storage facility initiatives in Angola. They are searching for new technology to store imported goods for sales, reduce food spoiling and waste, increase food quality, and increase their profit margins.  The private sector is a key stakeholder that U.S. companies should tap into for commercial sales in this market.

Key Opportunities

Angola’s cold-storage challenges offer various opportunities to provide your commercial solutions in different areas of the Angolan Cold Chain industry such as:

  • Cold storage warehouses and solutions suitable for large and small-scale farmers
  • Refrigerated trucks and/or train cars for country-wide transportation, especially from farms to marketplaces
  • Cold storage supply parts and maintenance
  • Storage-solutions for all kinds of produce, animals, and fish
  • Double-use cold storage technology to supplement the transfer of vaccines and medicines

Demand for cold storage solutions is very high in both the public and private sectors to improve the standard of living in Angola.  If you have cold-storage solutions that would work well in this market, and intend to work with the Angolan Government, be prepared to propose creative financial solutions/models to fund the project. You must also connect your product directly to Angola’s food security and export goals to gain a listening ear among government stakeholders and entities.

For more information about the opportunities in the agriculture or cold storage sector and to design your market-entry strategy for Angola, contact Commercial Specialist Manuel Cafala at Manuel.Cafala@trade.gov.

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