WITH Angola importing over half of its agriculture products and oils, Zimbabwe has been implored to take advantage of the existing cordial relations to establish an export market in the Southern African country.

With a population of about 37 million people, and yet importing over half of its food totalling more than US$2.75 billion, Angola presents an array of export opportunities for Zimbabwe’s food and agricultural products.

In most supermarkets around the capital, Luanda, food with foreign stickers dominates the shelves, making it a fertile ground for exports, especially for countries like Zimbabwe that has turned around its agriculture fortunes.

“Angola imports virtually everything for their food and it is an opportunity for us because if you look into shops, you would find beef and poultry products from Brazil and Portugal yet we are closer. It is an opportunity we should take and make use it. There is seed that is coming from Zimbabwe but not through formal ways. A country with 37 million people and they import virtually everything and feeding 37 million people there is a ready market. I think it’s a time we engage our monumental brands like Mazowe to open distribution lines here,” said Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Angola, H.E. Dr Thando Madzvamutse.

With strong ties stemming from the liberation struggle that saw Angola providing training bases for ZIPRA guerrillas, the two sisterly republics have strong bilateral relations that can spur economic development.

“Our relations date back to the liberation struggle, Angola provided us with moral and material support. You would remember that last year we had our second joint German cooperation where we signed 11 memoranda of association across all the economic sectors and we need to make us of the bilateral cooperation to enhance our economy. Angola is diversifying from being dependant on oil and we need to take advantage of it,” he added.

While boasting of an abundant natural resources base, favourable rainfall pattern and fertile soils for crops and livestock production, this country only makes use of 10 percent of its 35 million hectares of arable land, making it a proverbial low hanging fruit for trade in agriculture products.