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Angola farmers wear masks during a farmer field school session on Covid-19 prevention in Malanje Province, Lombe community. Angola has very few cases of Covid-19 and FAO. together with the Angolan government, is working to keep it that way. Photo credit: FAO/Estevao Benedito.)
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Angolan coffee bean harvested by small family grower. (Photo credit: Mwanzo Millinga.)
Before 1975, when Angola gained its independence from Portugal, the country was ranked the third-largest producer of coffee in the world with its Coffea canephora (robusta) considered a high-quality product. In this coffee-producing country Coffea arabica is produced on a smaller scale in the central plateau region, where as soil conditions and climate are favorable.
In 1974, at the country’s historic height of production Angola produced 228,000 metric tons (mt) of coffee. Approximately 2,500 large commercial farms and 250,000 smallholders were involved in coffee production. In 1985, a group of 34 state-owned coffee companies produced 8,890 mt, and they were dependent upon government subsidies to stay in business.
In 2021 the total cultivated area amounted to 43,600 hectares (ha), among the potential of 2.5 million ha of land with aptitude for coffee production, according to the National Coffee Institute (INCA). Average yields were 4,146 mt and 1,006 mt (a total of 5,152 mt) of robusta and arabica commercial coffee, respectively, declining from the previous year’s total production of 6,050 mt.
Currently, about 84% of the production comes from small-to-medium-sized operations, many of these family farms. INCA considers a total of 16,047 of these coffee producing plantations to as low productivity producers. Despite this fact, some family farmers and private companies introduce new plantations to increase their production averages.
Exports around the world conclude that coffee represents an excellent growth opportunity for Angola. One important reason is that, over the course of the past three decades, growing worldwide demand for coffee led to a 60% increase in global production, according to the London-based International Coffee Organization (ICO). Looking at the data published by Statista, “global coffee production reached 163.7 million 60-kilogram bags as of 2019/2020”.
This one sector of Angola’s economy is promising partly because it attracts innovation and investment. But its sustainability must be strengthened. And a lack of access to affordable finance hinders the work which farmers do to grow better quality product and increase the productivity of their plantations.
The World Bank ranks Angola as a “lower middle income”. With a fast-growing population of 30 million and with per capita annual income at US$3,370, the country faces some very big challenges. This per capita annual income is relatively high when compared to other sub-Saharan African countries, and it’s almost re-markable for a least developed country (LDC). Before the pandemic, there was steady growth in per capita GDP rising from $745 in 2000 to $2,658 in 2019. However, despite the growth over time, the most recent trend shows GDP falling. The decline is due to the combined effect of oil price changes and Covid-19. Angola’s chronically weak productive capacities will only strengthen with the structural transformation in its economy.
Development is limited despite the exceptional improvement in per capita GDP, progress in economic diversification, and advances in social and human-capital. These challenges are daunting. Angola remains heavily dependent on oil, which accounts for 93% of the nation’s total merchandise exports (as measured in 2019). The decline in international oil prices aggravated the vulnerability of the country to external shocks.
Over-dependence on a single export item (in this case oil) discouraged the country from incorporating into global value chains and participating more fully in the export of manufactured goods and value-added services.
With the Covid-19 crisis, the country faces increasing challenges arising from dependency on a single commodity. The pandemic will also reverse the modest gains in poverty reduction which Angola achieved during the last decade. The situation prompted the country to seek an extension of the preparatory period preceding its “graduation” from the LDC category, which was to happen in February 2021. The UN General Assembly’s most recent resolution extends the preparatory period by three years, until February 2024.
Hindering this “graduation” is a major challenge: building economic resilience to help weather external shocks. The country needs new policies and new institutions that will diversify its economy, maximize regional opportunities ,and accelerate global trade. The EU funds “Train for Trade”, the UN’s Joint Program for Angola, which supports export diversification by through building productive capacities in different areas.
By 2002, with the civil war’s end, more than 800,000 people died. More than one million Angolans were internally displaced. Despite this, and the weakened (or non-existent) infrastructure, hard-working coffee growers and the other key players – service providers, ag input providers, intermediaries like transport companies –somehow managed
Among the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Angola is not too dissimilar from others. It’s been ruled by the same party since independence, and authorities systematically repressed political dissent. What remains common is the corruption, political oppression, and violence perpetrated by arms forces. Since the current president’s 2017 election, the government listened to international criticisms. Looking back over the course of 2020, Transparency International, the global non-profit and corruption watchdog ranked the country as 142 of a total of 180. That’s close to the bottom. In response, the government took steps to crack down on endemic corruption. It eased up a bit on press and civil society restrictions. But the fact is that the serious challenges persist, especially in governance and human rights. As a result, business investment slowed.
Arabica is one focus of Angolan producers and exporters. According to Statista, “In 2020/21, worldwide arabica coffee production amounted to about 102.1 million 60 kilogram bags. The global production of arabica coffee is expected to decrease to just under 88 million bags the following marketing year.”
Climate change is bearing down hard on coffee producers, and not simply because of rising temperatures. Of course, high temperatures decrease the quality of the bean and increase water requirements. The global shift of weather systems also increases the activity and threat of pests and diseases.
How is Angola being affected? While robusta coffee is predominant in Angola, this variety tolerates higher humidity and more sunlight. But it needs heavier precipitation, and thus may require increased use of irrigation, in order to keep soil moisture as droughts become more frequent and severe. Small and medium scale coffee farmers now need to adopt a series of agriculture practices to increase resilience and minimize the negative effects of climate change on yield and quality.