Speaking to Lusa news agency, Samuel Candungo reacted to the criticism made this Wednesday by Angolan businessman Fernando Teles, on the existence of unfair competition and unbridled importation of products, which he said was harming national producers.
Fernando Teles, who was speaking during the presentation session of the Study Banking in Analysis 2022, by Deloitte Angola, even quoted Carrinho several times, to exemplify the situation.
"The strangulation is in the unfair competition, it was created here in Angola Carrinho and beyond, that everyone knows that it has the monopoly and the other farmers cannot work. We have to help each other. The diversification of the economy is- if talking every day, we are available to talk to people, to show what we are doing", said Fernando Teles.
In response, Samuel Candungo said that the company cannot stop doing its business out of fear of a monopoly.
"That is not my problem. Monopoly is never a problem for a micro entity, we have a business vision and we conceive our business looking at our purposes", he referred.
According to Samuel Candungo, Carrinho is in the industry, develops a specific program to encourage the origin of its raw materials, and "whether others do or don't do that is not the company's problem".
The official denied that the Strategic Food Reserve (REA) had imported corn, as alleged by businessman Fernando Teles, and "the documentation can prove it".
"It acquired from national businessmen, continues to acquire, Carrinho as an industrialist, transformer of corn flour, corn meal, this year, because of this program, it will not import even more corn kernels. It is importing wheat, rice, other products, but not corn. Therefore, the information provided is not correct", he said.
Regarding the purchase of this product, Samuel Candundo said that REA had to have a subsidy, but that it is not available.
"Carrinho cannot take from its cash flow to go to the meeting. This is a responsibility of the Government, the reserve is a problem of the Government, not of Carrinho", he stressed.
According to Carrinho's financial director, a kilogram of maize is being bought at 130 kwanzas from individual and large-scale producers at a cost of 180 kwanzas and "the difference has to be covered by the State".
"For us to align with what is the tonnage in international markets. But the company cannot do this alone (...), so the State came in with the intention of stimulating national production. Now, not always, taking into account the financial availability of the State itself, this money is available. We all know that this is not a company, we only operate the reserve, we do not make the resources available for the reserve, the reserve is supervised by the Customs Bond of Angola and by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce", he highlighted.
Samuel Candundo also alleged infrastructure problems, namely roads, adding that the company has more than 50,000 tonnes of maize to ship at this time.
The financial director said that there is national production, but still insufficient to meet the country's needs, with corn sufficient for Carrinho's processing needs, but "for the country it is still a great challenge".
"We don't have capacity in rice, in wheat. This is not a process that will be resolved in a horizon of two, three years, it is a long-term process with actions, policies, well coordinated, in the sense of supporting national production", he noted.
"All these indications that Carrinho is favored, it is not true. Carrinho has a vision that it has been implementing for some years, people think that it is since 2019, it is not true", said Samuel Candungo, rejecting calls to the President, João Lourenço, and attributing greater visibility of the company in recent years to a "2012 vision that Carrinho is implementing".
"Deloitte has been following Carrinho since 2004. Carrinho is not a company that was born in 2019, Carrinho will now be 30 years old. The company lacked visibility. such as Odebrecht, Camargo Correia and others, since 2004," he said.
