Grandes Moagens de Angola and Soufflet Négoce partner to launch nation’s first vocational baking school
The agreement brings together GMA’s local milling presence and SNBI’s international milling and baking expertise to create a structured training platform for Angolan bakers for the first time.
ANGOLA – Grandes Moagens de Angola (GMA), the largest wheat milling company in the country and a subsidiary of the Webcor Group, has signed a landmark memorandum of understanding with French cereal trading giant Soufflet Négoce by InVivo (SNBI).
The strategic partnership aims to design, develop, and implement Angola’s first-ever Vocational Bakery School.
This collaborative initiative is structured to directly address acute technical labor shortages within the domestic food sector, drastically elevate the overall quality of locally produced bread, and advance national food security through specialized human capital investment.
The decision to launch a dedicated baking institution follows an exhaustive technical market study conducted across major urban hubs, including Luanda, Lobito, Benguela, and Catumbela.
The findings highlighted a critical structural gap in standardized training for regional bakers, presenting an immediate opportunity to upgrade local production capabilities.
Under the newly established framework, GMA and SNBI will dedicate the next 16 months to comprehensive project planning, infrastructure blueprints, specialized curriculum design, and the formalization of a governance model, with the preparatory phase scheduled for completion by August 2027.
The initiative leverages a robust synergy of local market depth and international operational expertise.
As the country’s foundational milling operator, GMA contributes extensive domestic distribution infrastructure and industrial flour-processing capabilities.
Conversely, SNBI brings world-class European grain processing know-how and a proven pedagogical framework for developing talent.
SNBI has already successfully demonstrated this regional training model through its subsidiary, Soufflet West Africa, which has operated a highly regarded vocational baking academy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since 2023.
Company executives emphasized that local technical capability forms the cornerstone of an independent, sustainable agro-industrial ecosystem.
By transitioning raw materials into high-quality consumer products through expert local hands, the project aims to optimize the entire grain value chain, stretching from industrial milling plants down to community tables.
The upcoming facility will offer structured, world-class educational tracks tailored for the entire domestic baking spectrum, providing foundational business and technical training to small-scale artisanal bakeries as well as highly specialized machinery competencies required for large-scale industrial manufacturing plants.
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