ANGOLA – The WangFestao Industrial Fishing company, one of the biggest fishing companies in Africa, is set to install a fish quality control laboratory in Porto Amboim, Cuanza Sul Province, Angola, this year.
Wangfestao operates 27 vessels which contributed to the company’s collection of 13,493,796 kilograms of fish in 2022 from a total of 21,787,839 kilograms caught in the entire municipality of Porto Amboim.
The news of the construction of the laboratory was revealed during a visit to the company by the municipal administrator of Porto Amboim, Maria Sumano.
Sumano citing advisor to Wangfestao Orlando Lemos Bravo, said that the laboratory will manage the quality and technical supervision of fish production in the municipality.
“Every product that enters the cold storage chambers will go through this process to whether its technical specifications and met the set quality standards,” he said.
He relayed that the company intends to train its technicians in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources to equip them with technical knowledge in this specific area.
“Given the magnitude of the company, the number of individuals to be trained will depend on the requirements to be imposed by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources,” he underlined.
The WangFestao company employs around 900 workers, 100 of whom are of Chinese nationality and has the capacity to dock four vessels, three semi-industrial and one craft vessel.
Its fisheries project come at a time when the Development Bank of Angola (BDA) on the other hand has committed to finance aquaculture projects in the province of Uige.
As part of the National Plan for the Promotion of Fisheries (Planapesca), in the first phase, the funding will cover 22 projects in the municipality of Uige which harbours 601 fish farmers.
According to the delegate of the northern region of the institution, Carlos Manuell, the funding amount is yet to be disclosed and will vary according to the needs of specific projects.
Planapesca aims to encourage the sustainable management of water resources and the diversification of public revenue sources.
The project has already kicked off with 75 kilograms of feed and 50 kilograms of maize allocated to aquaculturists that very day.
This is part of the government’s measures to improve the Angolan aquaculture sector, promote competitiveness in the sector and create employment opportunities.
It follows a recent similar move where the government financed the construction of a new fresh fish market worth 213 million kwanzas (US$422,795) in the municipality of Porto Amboim, through the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM).
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