With this new program, the Angola Bioenergy Company intends to promote agricultural production in 10,000 hectares in the province of Malanje. The PFCA is essentially aimed at "entrepreneurs and farmers with recognized capacity to invest in cultivated land, manage agribusiness and ensure the supply of sugar cane to Biocom for two cycles (12 years)", says the company in a statement sent to VerAngola.
The project integrates ten thousand-hectare Biocom blocks in the perimeter around the Agro-Industrial Complex of Capanda, municipality of Cacuso, province of Malanje. PFCA partners who do not opt for a portion of these blocks but comply with the requirements will be able to make the investment as long as it is within a radius of 50 kilometers around the Biocom Industrial Unit, they explain.
The selection process of applications extends until 2026, when the effective implementation phase of the PFCA begins. To this end, Biocom will make sugarcane seedlings available to partners and purchase the entire production for subsequent processing into sugar and ethanol, the main products of this industrial unit.
To support partners, Biocom already has an agreement with the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC), which provides investors with advice and financial monitoring of the project, having established partnerships with national banks to grant credit to interested parties.
"Constant support for those who transform and invest in the country's agricultural sector is a fundamental goal of the PFCA", considers Rodrigo Melo, general director of Biocom. According to the person responsible, "the project also includes advice and technical training to train the operational workforce, issue agronomic analyzes and recommendations, and also guidance in the acquisition of equipment to be used in the operation".
With the PFCA, highlights Rodrigo Melo, "the class of sugarcane producers wins and the country wins". "This program adds 10,000 hectares of sugarcane cultivation to the 30,000 hectares already cultivated by Biocom. This allows the company to reach maximum sugar production capacity, in the order of 220,000 tons, which corresponds to 70 percent of the national market's needs These are important numbers, which will help Angola to diversify agricultural production, reduce sugar imports and take firm steps towards food self-sufficiency", he stated.
In addition to this project, Biocom also started other projects this year that contribute to increasing national production and diversifying the economy and supply, the statement said. "We are already producing molasses from sugar cane, which constitutes important support for agriculture and livestock farming in Angola", informed the company's general director. Before, he recalls, "this product was 100 percent imported, but this year we expect a production of 3,000 tons of high quality, demonstrating once again our capacity as a company and, above all, the country's enormous potential."
Rodrigo Melo also said that "Biocom has already started selling this product to national entrepreneurs" and "hopes to contribute to the supply of this input to the entire national agricultural and livestock chain", since "sugarcane molasses can be used as agricultural fertilizer, supplement for animal feed or even as raw material for the country's distilleries "When produced by the national industry, these products contribute to the reduction of imports and eliminate the need for foreign exchange", he highlights.
