The investment in this fruit takes place in the municipality of Pango Aluquém, where there are 96 small producers registered by the Municipal Directorate of Agriculture, 22 of which are dedicated to fruit cultivation. According to Angop, most of these producers still use subsistence agriculture as they are not part of cooperatives or associations, so their production is not included in the count, as well as they are unable to obtain financing to improve the development of their actions. In addition to these, there are other producers with large land sizes where harvests range from one to one and a half tons per week.
One of the examples of investment in passion fruit is producer António Albano and his partner Juliana Sabino. Owners of 14 hectares in downtown Futungo, António and Juliana entered the world of passion fruit production in 2014, the year in which they began cultivating one hectare and realized its potential.
Juliana Sabino, cited by Angop, said that it was from then on that they began to consider expanding the business. Not even the lack of tools deterred them from the idea, although they only had machetes and hoes, they rolled up their sleeves and started clearing new land to expand the cultivation areas.
The first production began between 2017 and 2018, pointed out Juliana Sabino, who although she did not estimate quantities, added that during this period a lot of fruit was lost due to there being no market.
The years that followed, she added, also proved to be fruitful in terms of production. Cited by Angop, it reported that those interested in selling this fruit began to appear in the municipality with the aim of purchasing it, as producers had no way of reaching the markets due to the distance and lack of transport.
Regarding the most recent harvest, Juliana Sabino reported that last year, between 40 and 50 boxes of 25 kilos were harvested weekly, in downtown Futungo (corresponding to a little more than a ton). However, that number dropped a little this year due to the rain, and currently 35 boxes are collected weekly.
Another case is that of Evaristo Leonardo, who owns four hectares in the Boa Entrada neighborhood. However, production, which started in 2017, is carried out on one hectare, and around two to three boxes of 25 kilos are harvested weekly.
Although the numbers seem small, the producer says that passion fruit production is profitable and regrets that they do not have the capacity to obtain more materials to increase production.
"It's the only product that has helped us. If we had the capacity to buy material we could produce more," he said, quoted by Angop.
Among the main obstacles for producers – who have the capital as the largest center for transporting production as it is close to Bengo – are access to production sites, lack of work equipment, as well as transport for transporting production.
Florêncio João Adão, municipal director of Agriculture in Pango Aluquém, said that although there is no local program aimed at promoting passion fruit production, the management has encouraged and provided support to producers in institutional terms, having taken the opportunity to ask producers to organize themselves into cooperatives and legalize their land, in order to be able to request financing from banks.
