Angolan beverage manufacturer Refriango and Spanish dairy group Pascual have opened a new milk processing plant in Luanda. The plant will process 20,000 litres of milk per hour and is intended to help meet increasing demand for dairy products in Angola.

Refriango started life in 1992 as Açorango, a marketing and distribution company for food and beverages. Refriango’s first specialist soft drinks production plant opened in 2005 and the company now owns fifteen drinks brands and one of the largest production plants in Africa.

Pascual was founded in 1969 by Spanish entrepreneur Tomás Pascual. It initially specialised in heat-treated milk and dairy products, moving on to include juices by the 1990s and into the catering segment in 2010. Its yoghurt brands have been in Angola for more than 25 years and are particularly popular among children and teenagers. Pascual hopes through the partnership with Refriango to strengthen its own position in Angola.

The new processing plant will reduce Angola’s dependence on imported milk products, which currently make up 90% of demand. The domestic dairy sector is currently growing slowly, increasing from 198 thousand metric tons of milk in 2010 to 220 thousand in 2020. The new plant will stimulate the local supply of dairy products, initially processing 5 million litres of milk per year. It will also supply powered milk and ultra-high temperature treated (UHT) milk to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries.