Angola nears deal to hand Brazilian investors 800,000 hectares in major push beyond oil

The negotiations would bring Brazilian agricultural companies, technology and financing into one of Angola’s largest proposed farming developments.

According to Bloomberg, Brazil’s government expects an agreement on the projects to be reached soon, although financing arrangements remain a key hurdle.

The talks come after Angola’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Isaac dos Anjos warned earlier this month that the country could turn to other partners if Brazilian lenders failed to provide the financial guarantees needed to get the projects moving.

Brazil’s development bank, BNDES, is aware of the negotiations, but financing can only be structured after commercial agreements have been concluded, André Taveira Cruz, an export credit manager at the bank.

Angola wants Brazilian capital, not just expertise

The negotiations are the latest stage of a plan Angola has been developing for months to turn some of its vast amount of underused agricultural land into commercial farms.

At the Angola-Brazil Agribusiness Forum in Luanda, Dos Anjos said about 800,000 hectares had been identified for surveying and land-use planning ahead of the establishment of Brazilian-led agricultural enterprises.

The proposed financing structure illustrates how aggressively Angola is trying to remove one of the biggest obstacles facing large agricultural projects.

Under a model outlined by the Angolan government, BNDES would account for 45% of the financing, Brazil’s BB Proex 23%, Angola’s Development Bank 5%, Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund 17% and producers themselves the remaining 10%.

However, Angolan officials have acknowledged that the financial institutions have yet to make firm commitments.

Angola is also preparing the $83.2 million Terra Lunda project in Lunda Norte province. The project covers 20,000 hectares and is expected to be developed between 2027 and 2030.

Angola’s 800,000-hectare ambition predates the latest Brazil talks

The size of the project is significant, but Angola’s plan to make 800,000 hectares available to foreign agricultural investors is not entirely new.

In September 2025, the Angolan government said land covering about 800,000 hectares would be made available to Brazilian and Chinese businesses to establish agricultural production hubs.

The proposed farms were expected to produce soybeans, maize, cotton and oranges, alongside beef, poultry and pork.

At the time, Angola also said it had secured an arrangement to export 500,000 tonnes of surplus agricultural products to China, with the possibility of eventually doubling the volume.

Investors from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had also expressed interest, according to information from the Angolan government.

The latest negotiations with Brazil therefore represent an attempt to move the project from land allocation and political commitments towards actual commercial investment and financing.

Brazil is not alone in Angola’s farming push

China is also expanding its agricultural footprint in Angola.

Chinese companies have been linked to large farming projects in the country, including plans by Citic Construction to develop 100,000 hectares for soybean and maize production and Sinohydro to cultivate about 30,000 hectares of grain.

That gives Luanda leverage as it negotiates with Brazilian investors and lenders. For Angola, the bigger objective is economic diversification.

Despite being one of sub-Saharan Africa’s major oil producers, the country has long depended heavily on crude exports for foreign exchange and government revenue while importing substantial amounts of food.

Agriculture offers Luanda an opportunity to attack both problems at once, reducing food imports while building another source of exports.

Angola has about 36 million hectares of arable land, according to figures presented by Dos Anjos. Households currently cultivate roughly six million hectares, while corporate farms account for less than one million hectares.

The proposed Brazilian development would therefore represent a significant expansion of Angola’s commercial farming footprint if the entire 800,000 hectares eventually comes into production.

For Brazil, the deal offers its agribusiness companies another foothold in Africa, where demand for food, agricultural technology and processing infrastructure continues to grow.

But Angola’s message to prospective partners has become increasingly clear: access to land will not be enough. Luanda wants investors capable of bringing financing, technology and processing capacity with them.

Whether the 800,000-hectare ambition finally moves from agreements to farms will largely depend on whether Brazil’s financial institutions are prepared to back that expansion.