Public-private partnerships and “patience” essential ingredients for projects involving partners from China in Mozambique.

In May, research by NGO Greenpeace stated that Chinese companies are the main culprits in illegal logging in the Congo Basin, including Angola. China is the main market for African timber, whether cut illegally or legally.

Angola’s President João Lourenço has put reinvigorating the agriculture sector at the heart of his economic strategy. Greater production of a wider range of crops would both reduce the US$3 billion a year that the country spends on food imports and also improve living standards in the rural areas that have missed out on more rapid economic development at the coast.

93% of all of the timber taken in 2013 was illegally felled. Estimates vary, but it is clear that about half of the illicit timber ends up in China, with most of the rest shipped to Southeast Asia. China also accounted for 90% of Mozambique’s licit timber exports last year.

Japan and China are the countries that Angola is contacting to finance the re-launch of the cotton crops in the Cassange region.

Angola has discussed reinvigorating its agriculture sector ever since 2002. Yet the reliance on oil income meant that far too little progress was actually made.