This Wednesday, Fernando Teles expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation during the presentation of the Study Banking in Analysis 2022, by Deloitte Angola, reporting difficulties that farmers have faced in recent months, namely in selling maize.
"In the last three months, pork meat had to be burned, because it could not be sold, because they decided to import it without paying taxes, there is no possibility of us internally being able to compete with imports without paying taxes," he said.
Fernando Teles said that "one of the biggest agricultural investors in Angola, the biggest producer of corn, soybeans, rice, pork", producers pay VAT and face infrastructure difficulties, rejoicing with the fact that electricity has arrived , a week ago, to one of his farms in Quibala.
"The truth is that there have to be policies. I've been talking to the ministers and everything whistles to one side, it gives the impression that the important thing is who matters, the important thing is that the product arrives very cheaply in Angola, but we have to support our costs, it is better for the country to spend a bit on promoting production, possibly supporting it with electricity, with cheaper interest", he said.
The former banker, with experience at Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) and chairman of the board of directors of Banco BIC, said that the measures taken by the National Bank of Angola (BNA) are sufficient, as well as the programs of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, but "the bottleneck is not there".
"The strangulation is in the unfair competition, here in Angola [the group] Carrinho was created and beyond, which everyone knows has a monopoly and the other farmers cannot function. We have to help each other. Diversification we are talking about the economy every day, we are available to talk to people, to show what we are doing", he stressed.
According to the producer, they are present in seven of the 18 provinces, with a breeding of 19,000 pigs in the municipality of Quibala, province of Cuanza Sul, with 600 workers, and 12,000 cows on their farms.
"Every day we sow corn, we sow soy, every day we harvest corn, every day we harvest soy, but it gives the impression that people don't want to see that. Fortunately, the President of the Republic has spoken about encouraging national production, but that it is not happening. Talk to us and to the groups that produce maize and everyone will say the same thing", he underlined.
Fernando Teles stressed that the Strategic Food Reserve (REA) was supposed to raise corn from producers, but did not comply, having previously imported corn.
"It can't be, if you don't want to kill national producers at the level of agriculture, you have to talk to businessmen, you can't make unfair competition with businessmen, you can't import purely and simply, walk around in companies asking for a declaration to take to the trade to importing when we know perfectly well that importing is easier", he vented, questioning whether "it's worth" the effort.
"There has to be a moment of reflection, there has to be a moment to call the entrepreneurs (...) it is not creating a company like Carrinho to compete with us, that's not it, it's to help each other. Carrinho it must exist, but it is not to compete, it is not to import the product at a price that national entrepreneurs cannot produce at that price", he added.
According to Fernando Teles, the climate is one of discontent and lack of motivation among businessmen, "thinking about what they are going to do for the future".
"I invest in agriculture and livestock every day, my projects are the same as those in Brazil, Argentina, the United States, we can compare. We have an extruder for soy, we have soy oil, we have a feed factory, we have a factory we have cornmeal, we have pigs, we are going into chicken now, we are making corn and soy every day. (...) We have to stop the careless importation of people who do their role as importers, but only want to put the money in the pocket at the end of the month", he expressed.
