An estimated 8 percent of the land is engaged in crop production. The island of Bioko has year-round rainfall, and the prevailing economic activity is cocoa cultivation. In Río Muni (on mainland Africa), where 80 percent of the population lives, food crops are the dominant economic activity, and cash crop cultivation is secondary.
Agriculture (including forestry and fishing) accounts for about 50 percent of GDP and 60 percent of exports. The main food crop is cassava, of which 45,000 tons were produced in 2004. Sweet potatoes are the second-largest food crop, with 36,000 tons in 2004, followed by bananas (20,000 tons).
Before independence, the main cash crops were cocoa, coffee, and palm kernels for palm oil. Guinean cocoa, of excellent quality, had an annual production of 38,000 tons in 1967. However, production experienced a sharp drop in the 1970s, falling to 4,512 tons in 1980. In 2004, production was estimated at 2,400 tons. Coffee of comparatively poor quality is grown in northern Río Muni, along the Cameroon border. The preindependence production of 8,959 tons in 1967 fell to 500 tons in 1978; the decline was mainly caused by forcible transfer of coffee farmers to the Bioko cocoa plantations. Coffee production was an estimated 3,500 tons in 2004. Actual cocoa and coffee production is higher, but official figures do not take into account quantities smuggled abroad rather than delivered to state marketing agencies
Equatorial Guinea Promotes Agricultural Sector Agriculture Ministry Discusses Cooperation with China
As part of Equatorial Guinea’s (República de Guinea Ecuatorial) efforts to boost agricultural development and move the country toward an emergent economy, the government is seeking further cooperation with China. In a meeting between Gregorio Boho Camo, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, and the manager of the Chinese Embassy in Malabo, the two discussed the possibility of creating a consortium for the agricultural sector.
During the meeting, Gregorio Boho Camo highlighted how the creation of the agriculture sector consortium with China will help Equatorial Guinea reach its Horizon 2020 objectives. The possibility of re-launching cacao cultivation with the help of Chinese companies will be another way of achieving these goals.
The Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Minister Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, disseminated information about the government’s agriculture sector objectives throughout the country. During the awareness tour for the agriculture sector, Sergio Osa Mongomo, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, talked about the activities of the MAECI program, a project focused on attaining food self-sufficiency in the country, with the purpose of achieving the goals set during the second National Economic Conference in 2007.
The tour previewed the activities Minister Nguema will carry out in the first quarter of 2011 and highlighted the importance of the agricultural associations and the promotion of coffee and cacao in the country. They also verified the state of the compliance with the repayment of loans, given by the state to various agricultural associations, as well as the distribution of seeds, fertilizers and plant health products
