Humpata – One thousand and 300 tons of tropical fruits, 650 of which are pears, were harvested by farmers in the municipality of Humpata, Huíla province, in 2023, which represent 550 tons more than in 2022.
The municipality of Humpata stands out for being the largest producer of tropical fruits in the country, where apples, peaches, quinces, guavas, citrus, strawberries, plums and pears stand out.
In an interview with ANGOP, the director of the municipal office of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Flora Fernandes, said that the increase in production was due to the regularity of rainfall in this period, unlike last season, marked by drought, as well as demand in the market.
The source detailed the harvest of 430 apples, 200 oranges and 80 lemons, whose main marketing markets were Lubango, Luanda, Luanda, Benguela, Cunene and Namibe.
Without advancing the number of families involved in the campaign, nor the number of hectares in which the harvests were made, Flora Fernandes considered the production to be “satisfactory”, which demonstrates the potential of the municipality in this regard, a scenario that can attract more investors in this segment.
She said that the presence of Humpata fruit is remarkable in local markets, not least because imported fruit is scarce, so the demand for national production is greater, thus pointing out the 'progress' and the will of the producing families.
According to the director, the low prices are the main bottlenecks that producers are experiencing, combined with the constant theft in the plantations and the lack of a processing industry that can absolve the surplus, which almost always ends up in the garbage as animal feed.
She added that the local administration recently acquired from local producers 3,000 plants of various fruit trees, with the aim of repopulating and replacing the old ones, some of which are more than 50 years old and have little production.
With an area of 1,434 square kilometers, the municipality of Humpata is located 22 kilometres west of Lubango and has an estimated population of 120,772 inhabitants. It is bordered to the north by the municipality of Bibala (Namibe), to the south by Chibia, to the east by Lubango and to the west by Virei (Namibe). JT/MS/DOJ
