Mon 25 Aug 2008, Luanda - Dole Food Co. Inc, the world's largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables, is considering investing in Angola's agricultural province of Benguela, a local banana producer who met with company officials said on Monday.
Manuel Monteiro, the biggest banana producer in oil and mineral rich Angola, said he met with officials from U.S.-based Dole Food on Saturday, adding they expressed interest in investing in Benguela's banana industry.
"They want to invest in the banana industry here," Monteiro said, without providing figures.
Benguela's director for Rural Development told Reuters he had also met with Dole Food officials, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dole Food rival Chiquita Brands International Inc recently partnered with Angola's biggest private investor ESCOM, owned by Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo, to also invest in Benguela's once prosperous banana industry.
Angola was a top producer of bananas, coffee, sugarcane, sisal and cotton before a 27-year civil war after independence from Portugal in 1975 led to a mass exodus of farmers to the cities and halted production. The war ended in 2002.
Since then, the coastal province of Benguela, located about 400 km south of the capital Luanda, has been the target of substantial public investments in roads, a railway and a deep-water port to help kick start its farm industry.
The country, Africa's second biggest oil producer, holds its first post-civil war parliamentary elections on September 5.