ANGOLA – Carrinho Group, one of Angola’s largest food processing companies, has inaugurated its newly built vegetable oil refinery and animal feed processing factory.
The facility, according to reports by Angola Press, has been ready since November 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays to commencement of operations due to the absence of expatriate technicians in charge of assembling the production lines.
The refinery is now fully fashioned with a daily production capacity of 400 tons of soy, palm and sunflower oil, which will be doubled following the installation of a second line next May, reports Angola Press.
It is equipped with automatic blowing, filling and capping lines, which give the final product a robust packaging ensuring proper storage and longer shelf life.
At the moment, the refinery will utilize imported crude oil to produce the final product, packaged in 250ml, 500ml, one, three and five litre bottles.
As for the animal feed factory, it has a processing capacity of 30 tons per hour producing granulated and crumbled flour in 30 kgs, 100-kg bags or in bulk.
Regarding the supply of raw material for animal feed production, Carrinho Agri technicians have started initiating a partnership with small-holder farmers, with the aim of reducing imports and, within a year.
Recently, the food processor entered a deal with IFC to launch a training program for tens of thousands of farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in Angola’s agriculture sector.
Through the program, IFC will help Carrinho Group develop sustainable agriculture practices, including conservation and crop diversification, and establish value chains in rural markets, with a focus on soya bean cultivation and poultry farming.
The opening of the vegetable oil refinery and the animal feed factory, has created 320 new job opportunities at the Carrinho Industrial Complex.
In other related news, the Southern African country has cut ribbon to a new US$25m meat processing facility, set to meet local demand and tap into lucrative export market.
Located in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone (ZEE), on the outskirts of the Angolan capital, the unit dubbed “Quinta de Jugais” aims to produce charcuterie from both pork and poultry.
According to reports by Novo Jornal, the facility will commence operations with an installed processing capacity of 800 tons of meat per month.
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