Filomena Oliveira, a businesswoman in the agricultural sector and vice-president of the Huíla Commercial and Industrial Agricultural Association (AAPCIL), applauds the government's decision to ban the import of offal, poultry, pig and cattle parts from 15 March, and defended the need for people to return to the countryside to grow their own products for consumption.
People “can't just sit around waiting for a container to arrive to eat, we have land, let's leave the cities and start planting, raising chickens and rabbits”, she said, in statements made on the sidelines of the workshop to launch the public consultation for the drafting of the National Strategy for the Reconversion of Agri-Food Systems 2026-2035.
“I don't know why we have to spend the foreign currency we need to import equipment, to go and buy what others don't eat, and what isn't even good for their animal feed, this is a lack of dignity”, the businesswoman responded to Lusa.
Filomena Oliveira argued that Angolan citizens “must stop having a poor, miserable mentality” and should use their time and intelligence to “plant seeds that make people start to think positively”.
“The more we complain about hunger and poverty, the poorer we become. We must spend all our time teaching and promoting solutions that bring dignity to our people”, she pointed out.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, through the Institute of Veterinary Services, announced in the first half of February that imports of some food products of animal origin, namely poultry, pigs and cattle, will be prohibited.
The document, addressed to “importers of products and by-products of animal origin”, announced that “licenses will not be issued for the import of offal, parts of poultry, pigs and cattle”, from certain dates onwards.
Therefore, from 15 March onwards, no licences will be issued to import “offal, liver, tripe, kidneys, heart and lungs of cattle”, as well as “turkey, chicken and duck wings, gizzards, hearts, backs, necks and livers of birds”.
In a second phase, on 31 July, the import of “pig necks, beef tails and heads, chicken thighs, turkey drumsticks and thighs” will be banned, she said.
The businesswoman insisted that these animal products cannot even be used as feed in exporting countries, stating that the food solution lies in the field.
The businesswoman also addressed the misappropriation of funds in the General Tax Administration (AGT) that is being investigated by the authorities and stated that this was the third time in the last eight years that the institution has recorded situations of this kind.
“This is due to a lack of education, a lack of ethics in families, it is due to us producing children who are spoiled, children who do not want to work and, at the first opportunity, unfortunately many of our youth are just looking for somewhere to go and get involved”, she criticised.
Top officials at AGT, an agency overseen by the Ministry of Finance, were recently arrested for alleged involvement in a fraudulent VAT refund scheme involving the embezzlement of 7 billion kwanzas.
According to the businesswoman, such a scenario at AGT was predictable and she argued that “many in [Angolan] society benefited from this theft” pointing to corruption as a global problem.
“But impunity is no longer there, we are a country where impunity is rife, because we do not demand ethics”, she concluded.
