On the eve of a visit to China by Angola President João Lourenço, a Chinese conglomerate announced a major investment in an Angolese aquaculture project.
Haishan Group, a private Beijing-based construction firm, has announced its involvement in the construction of a 300-hectare real estate and fishery industrial park featuring aquaculture, seafood processing, and feed production facilities – as well as a 164-hectare automatic technology “city” and a 120-hectare commercial real estate project.
Haishan has operated in Angola since 2005 under its local subsidiary H&S Imobiliária, which has focused on high-end real estate development and infrastructure projects. It has also become involved in the development of Angola’s agricultural sector through investments in poultry and horticulture projects.
Speaking at a launch party in Luanda, Angola’s capital, Haishan Chairman Zheng Gang said his company will spend USD 1 billion (EUR 920 million) on the project over the next five years. Mingyu Industrial Group, Sichuan Hongling Group, and “well-known Chinese financial institutions” are also involved in the project as strategic partners.
China is Angola’s top supplier of industrial goods and is also a major buyer of Angolan oil.
Lourenço conducted a state visit to China from 14 to 17 March that included a trip to Shandong province, a key region for Chinese aquaculture and seafood output.
This followed a Chinese government-organized trip that Angolan diplomats based in Beijing took last year of Chinese seafood facilities in southern China, including a visit to the Fujian headquarters of Fuzhou Hong Dong Pelagic Fishery, a leading distant-water fishing company with a large processing operation in Mauritania.
Elsewhere, in 2018, Chinese aquaculture firm Sino Agro Foods previously announced plans to build a major shrimp and feed production facility in Angola with a local partner, but this project hasn’t yet been built amid the firm’s mounting financial troubles.
