• Spanish company Pascual partners with Angolan beverage manufacturer, Refriango to open a new milk processing plant in Luanda.

• The new plant will reduce Angola’s dependence on imported milk products.

After more than 25 years of exporting yogurt to Angola, Pascual begins milk production in Angola for the first time. Spain-based dairy company, Pascual has partnered with Refriango Angolan beverage manufacturer to open a new milk processing plant in Luanda, Angola’s capital city.  The milk processing plant will have the capacity to process 20,000 litres of milk per hour and also meet the increasingly high demand for dairy products in the country.

Established in 1992, Refriango is a company that specializes in the marketing and distribution of food and beverages that was formerly known as Acorango. Its first soft drinks production plant was opened in 2005 and currently has 15 drinks brands. Refriango has one of the largest production plants in Africa.

The Spanish-based company, in 1969 Pascual was founded by a Spanish businessman Tomas Pascual after whom the company was named. Its initial product specialization was heated milk and dairy which later included juices in the 1990s and ventured into the catering segment in 2010. For more than 25 years, Pascual yogurt brands have been in Angola, and it’s quite popular among children and teenagers. Through the partnership with Refriango, the company hopes to foster its own position in Angola.

With its new milk manufacturing and marketing operations in Angola, the Spanish company is looking at a turnover of 100 million euros within the period of five years, as the company stated in February 2022 that Angola accounts for almost 15% of its international business and was anticipated to reach a turnover amount of 25 million euros. The company boasts of a “market share of over 50%” in long-life yogurt in Angola, and its plans to amplify its turnover in Angola by twelvefold by 2028.

In Angola, the importation of milk products makes up 90% of the demand, however, there has been recent growth in the domestic dairy sector, from 198,000 metric tons of milk in 2010 to 220,000 in 2020. The new processing plant will help lighten Angola’s dependence on imported milk products. It will also revivify the local supply of dairy products which was originally processing five million litres of milk annually. The plant will supply other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries with powdered and ultra-high temperature treated (UHT) milk.

Pascual international director, Tomas Melendez said “our ambition is to ensure that the country is capable of self-sufficiency, without depending on imports, with nutritious products of the highest quality and generating employment throughout the region”. Also speaking on the partnership, CEO of Refriango Diogo Caldas said, “it is a great privilege for Refriango to partner with Pascual to develop the dairy sector in Angola”.