Speaker B
Nelson, so great to be with you. Thank you for joining me.
Exploring how agribusiness and regional integration via the Lobito Corridor can boost Angola’s economy, create jobs, and enhance food security.
Key Takeaways
- A platform approach addressing the entire agriculture value chain is essential for scaling agribusiness in Angola.
- Agribusiness has strong potential to create millions of jobs annually, especially for youth and smallholder farmers.
- The Lobito Corridor is a game-changer for regional trade, logistics, and investment between Angola, DRC, and Zambia.
- Regional integration and improved infrastructure will reduce costs and open new markets for agribusiness products.
- Long-term success depends on deepening integration, supporting smallholder farmers, and expanding industrial agribusiness capacity.
Summary
- Carinho Group, supported by IFC, is developing a platform to support Angolan farmers from inputs to market access, addressing gaps in the agriculture value chain.
- The platform approach enables farmers to focus on production while receiving credit, technical support, and guaranteed markets, driving recent growth in Angolan agriculture.
- Agribusiness is seen as a key driver for large-scale job creation in Angola, potentially providing hundreds of thousands of jobs annually to meet demographic demands.
- The Lobito Corridor is critical for logistics and regional integration, connecting Angola with DRC and Zambia, facilitating investment and expanding market access.
- Improved logistics through the corridor can reduce transport times drastically, enhancing competitiveness and enabling cross-border agribusiness operations.
- The corridor supports industrial investment and local supply chain development, exemplified by projects like a 1.2 million ton/year soybean crushing plant serving multiple countries.
- Regional integration aims to allow companies to operate freely across Angola, DRC, and Zambia, fostering economic development and job creation.
- Smallholder farmers represent the largest untapped opportunity for agribusiness growth and job creation in Angola and the broader region.
- Challenges remain in fully leveraging smallholder farmers, but there is optimism that within 5-7 years, agribusiness can become a scalable commodity in rural areas.
- Success in the next 5-7 years is envisioned as seamless regional cooperation, improved food security, and significant employment growth driven by agribusiness.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker B
I have heard just great things about the Carinho Group, and I know that you're working with IFC, and I know that you play a major role here in Angola in the agriculture sector.
Speaker B
And it would be great to start just hearing from you what are some of your major priorities when it comes to developing the sector, the agriculture sector here in Angola?
Speaker B
And in particular, I've been learning since I arrived that Angola has so much potential in agriculture, yet today is a food importer.
Speaker B
What are you doing to try to close the gap and and achieve more self-sufficiency and opportunity here in Angola?
Speaker A
Thank you very much for having me and talking about development and talking about the agribusiness, which is something that I have a great passion about it.
Speaker A
So, let's say, I had the opportunity to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker A
And the biggest challenge that we have as African entrepreneurs is that we basically have to fully understand the entire process.
Speaker A
We have to do from A to Z.
Speaker A
Because there is no platforms that support that.
Speaker A
So, what we're trying to do with Carinho in the agriculture sector is basically to create this platform.
Speaker A
We are trying to make sure that the farmers can focus on their core business.
Speaker A
And that we can then provide, let's say, all, let's say, the value chain all the way to the table.
Speaker A
So, what I'm trying to say is that Carinho basically provide the inputs on credit to the farmer.
Speaker A
Then Carinho provides also technical support.
Speaker A
And then we do the most important for an entrepreneur.
Speaker A
We guarantee them market.
Speaker A
So, we make sure that everything they're producing has a market.
Speaker A
And I think that has been the driver of that recently boom of Angolan agriculture.
Speaker A
And one thing that I also want to highlight is the support that IFC has been doing with us from day one.
Speaker A
I think the first time we went to the field and we trained our technicians, IFC was there with us.
Speaker A
And that has been, let's say, a very important support in transforming the landscape for for the agribusiness in the country.
Speaker B
Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker B
And what you're describing is exactly one of the major gaps that we have identified, which is this platform approach.
Speaker B
Where you bring in smallholder farmers into cooperatives, access to value chains and markets.
Speaker B
And with the supporting tools, whether it's finance, digital tools, information, capacity support.
Speaker B
And we launched a, just a little while ago, this initiative called AgriConnect.
Speaker B
So, it's very interesting to hear how you yourself felt the need to create this platform, which we're now rolling out globally.
Speaker B
But I want to come back to to the way you work because you're along the value chain, basically.
Speaker B
And you work, as you described, with smallholder farmers, more commercial farmers.
Speaker B
One opportunity that we think agribusiness has is job creation.
Speaker B
What has been your experience with creating jobs along the value chain, given that you are involved in so many different parts of agribusiness?
Speaker A
So, I think the only way, and when you look at our demographics and everything.
Speaker A
The only way you can tap job creation at scale that a country like Angola needs.
Speaker A
Let's say around 1 million Angolans get into the job.
Speaker A
And need position every year.
Speaker A
I think creating these platforms gives the opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Speaker A
Basically, on a yearly basis.
Speaker A
When I look at Angola, which I have the most experience, if we, if we're going to be, let's say, successful.
Speaker A
Socially and economic, it will have to do a lot with the job creation that the agribusiness can provide.
Speaker A
So, I'm a truly believer on that.
Speaker B
Yeah, that's so exciting and I think there's a lot of opportunity for young people.
Speaker B
To come in and really contribute and how we think about agribusiness in the future.
Speaker B
That's great.
Speaker B
I want to turn to the Lobito Corridor because we spent some time here in Angola.
Speaker B
Convening the three major countries around the Lobito Corridor, of course, Angola, the DRC and Zambia.
Speaker B
But also with with a lot of development partners.
Speaker B
And there's a lot of excitement and expectation out of this corridor.
Speaker B
How do you see the potential of this corridor to advance what you're trying to do?
Speaker B
Which is to really scale agribusiness.
Speaker B
And again, coming back to to creating jobs.
Speaker B
Attracting investment.
Speaker A
I don't know if I'm the right person to be talking about Lobito.
Speaker B
You're the right person.
Speaker A
Because I was born there and I have that that passion for Lobito.
Speaker A
And I was born with believing the greatness of the railway and everything.
Speaker A
And and foremost, I'm very happy that all this focus on Lobito.
Speaker A
But to me, the corridor is about logistics.
Speaker A
And and I think logistics is basically the missing point.
Speaker A
To us to bring development.
Speaker A
So, without the corridor, I think countries that are locked like the, I'll say, DRC and Zambia.
Speaker A
They they have that struggling to bring, say, scale investment.
Speaker A
Like Angola could bring to Lobito like we did.
Speaker A
So, I think having the corridor that gives the opportunity for us also to basically try to implement the same model.
Speaker A
That we have implemented, that we believe, and I'm very convinced that that's the model that can really bring progress to Africa.
Speaker A
Bring industrial investment and then make sure that you replace your supply chain with the local suppliers.
Speaker A
And having the corridor, it will not just allow us to go into points that we never thought before in Angola.
Speaker A
But it will allow us also to go to DRC, to go to to Zambia.
Speaker A
We are now putting a capacity of a, let's say, a crash soya plant with 1.2 million ton a year of soybean.
Speaker A
And we think, okay, we could not just, let's say, support Angolan farmers.
Speaker A
We could support Zambian farmers because now they can be competitive in transportation.
Speaker A
But I'm sure I couldn't mention many other examples.
Speaker A
So, but we are very excited about the the corridor.
Speaker B
That's so great and I like your emphasis on the regional integration element.
Speaker B
Which is, of course, the DRC and Zambia will have access to the Atlantic.
Speaker B
And what we've seen is some amazing potential statistics, you can cut down transport time from 25, 30 days to 5 to 7 days.
Speaker B
If it all works well, both the physical infrastructure, but also the border crossing and the procedures harmonization to be able to move fast across across the borders.
Speaker B
But that brings me to my last question.
Speaker B
And I want to take you like five years into the future.
Speaker B
In your aspirations, how do you see success?
Speaker B
What how do you define success?
Speaker B
When it comes to, we're five years out.
Speaker B
What has happened to the regional integration?
Speaker B
What where do you see that?
Speaker B
Between the countries.
Speaker B
And the access that they now have.
Speaker B
Where is food security?
Speaker B
And where are the jobs?
Speaker B
And how's the job situation?
Speaker A
I I I think in five years from from now.
Speaker B
Too short, too long?
Speaker A
I would say five years, I would say it's too short.
Speaker A
I would say it's too short.
Speaker B
Okay, I give you seven.
Speaker A
But in five to seven years from now, I think when it comes to the integration.
Speaker A
What we are, let's say, envision.
Speaker A
I I want to believe that for a company like ours to operate, let's say, either in Angola or DRC or Zambia.
Speaker A
Let's say, I I believe that we, and I hope that we are so integrated that we can freely operate around those three countries.
Speaker A
And I think that's going to be very critical to really bring development.
Speaker A
When it comes to job creation, I'm still, I still go back to smallholder farmers.
Speaker A
And and to me, like I can't even imagine without it, I think they really represent.
Speaker A
The let's say, the largest opportunity that our country in Sub-Saharan Africa can have.
Speaker A
But I'm also, I know, and from my personal experience.
Speaker A
We still do not know how to tackle this opportunity.
Speaker A
We still.
Speaker A
I I I want to believe that we as a company are five to seven years away that that can almost become like a commodity.
Speaker A
That you can go in the rural area of Angola or DRC or Zambia.
Speaker A
And you can really, let's say, find people want to work, want opportunities are there.
Speaker A
And they just need their support.
Speaker A
And they can go, let's say, from a, I would say, extreme poverty level into an entrepreneur.
Speaker A
So, I think this is.
Speaker A
I I really believe in.
Speaker A
And to be fairly honest, I'll be very disappointed and very sad if that didn't became a commodity.
Speaker A
That we can just fully implement the millions of Africans.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker A
Into basically entrepreneurship level.
Speaker A
So, that's what I basically think.
Speaker B
That's what you work for.
Speaker A
Yeah, that's what I work for.
Speaker A
My fully dedication is in that.
Speaker B
No, I I hear that and I see and it's really also ours.
Speaker B
Because we share so much the concept of the importance of smallholder farmers and the need to take so many of them.
Speaker B
They are in subsistence farming today.
Speaker B
And we want to take them to what we call surplus farming.
Speaker B
And really see that we help them and we make sure that we tap into all their potential by providing support tools for them to be able to aggregate.
Speaker B
Become part of cooperatives that have access to things like cold chains.
Speaker B
And markets and access to infrastructure like roads.
Speaker B
And digital tools.
Speaker B
And again, coming back to your platform.
Speaker B
So, I'm glad to see how passionate and committed you are to that.
Speaker B
We are too, so we'll continue working together on this.
Speaker A
Thank you very much.
Speaker A
And I hope that in five years from now, we can be talking about how we did it.
Speaker A
So, I I'm really all for it.
Speaker B
Let's do that.
Speaker A
And if it happens sooner, we'll meet sooner.
Speaker B
And talk about it.
Speaker A
That's a deal.
Speaker B
Thank you so much, Nelson.
Speaker B
Wonderful to meet you.
Topics:agribusinessAngolajob creationLobito Corridorregional integrationsmallholder farmersfood securityIFCagriculture platformvalue chain
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