João Ferreira, who was speaking Tuesday in Luanda, considered that the main point of the operators of the branch is the "promotion of the coffee production that obligatorily passes through the reorganization of the coffee sector and concretely the production of nurseries".
"If we cannot produce seedlings or nurseries we cannot talk about coffee production, that is why even today we are still taking very slow steps because of this, therefore there is no concrete definition of what is necessary to produce," said the official.
The official, who was speaking Tuesday at the end of the press conference for the presentation of the II Production and Private Sector Congress, also defended the "restructuring of the Coffee Institute of Angola (ICA), which is completely inoperative.
The ICA "has many staff difficulties, it hasn't renewed its staff in 10 years, I speak this because I have been a coffee staff member since 1966 and I have some property to talk about it," noted businessman João Ferreira.
Angola, which was once the third largest coffee producer in the world and has produced 240 thousand tons of coffee/year, currently exports an average of about 1100 tons of coffee/year.
"It's a drop in the ocean in relation to what the country should and can produce," lamented the association leader, also pointing out the legalization of land for operators as "a very serious problem."
João Ferreira even speaks of "mismatched issues" between the Ministry of Economy and Planning's intention to create conditions to legalize the producers' lands at a local level and the "slowness of the provincial governments" in the processes.
"Unfortunately, there is this slowness on the part of the provincial governments, we have several examples throughout the country and this is one of the biggest problems," he pointed out.
The leader criticized the high production rates, "because there are many abandoned farms."
A kilogram of commercial coffee in Angola costs 350 kwanzas, according to the leader.
The II Congress of Production and Private Sector, scheduled between November 4th and 6th, in Luanda, is a promotion of the Business Confederation of Angola (CEA) to which the National Association of Coffee, Cocoa and Palm of Angola is affiliated.
The event also foresees, as complementary and preparatory activities, a "National Meeting of the Coffee Growers of Angola".
