East African Minister of Agriculture Gölweistein mentioned at the 1893 Angola General Agricultural Report Conference:
"Angola Region's agriculture could be divided into five parts: the northern tropical cash-crop production area, the Central Highlands grain-crop production area, the southern traditional livestock-raising area, the eastern marine fisheries area, and the western forestry resource area."
Marine fisheries had been one of Angola's important pillar industries during the colonial era. They had already reached their zenith in the sixteenth century, when Angola's fishing industry had flourished at its peak.
During that period, Angola's fishing industry not only exported large quantities of fish to the Portuguese homeland, but also supplied fish to other Portuguese colonies. Angola had become one of the Portuguese colonial empire's most important fishing grounds.
Of course, after gold and silver mines were discovered in South America, Portugal shifted its focus of development. Angola's marine fisheries, along with its agriculture, entered a period of decline. Only after Portuguese influence had completely withdrawn from Brazil did Angola and Mozambique receive attention once more.
But by then, it was already too late. East Africa's rise had caused Portugal's renewed investments to go down the drain. Of course, Portugal had long since embarked on the road of decline, and its investments in the two regions were far inferior to those made during the sixteenth century, when its national strength had been at its height.
As for forestry resources, in his previous life, Angola's forest area had ranked second in Africa, surpassed only by Congo.
"During Portuguese colonization, Angola mainly cultivated corn, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and cotton, along with some European crops such as grapes, olives, and spices—spices had mainly been introduced by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. They also introduced animal husbandry, raising livestock such as cattle, sheep, and horses to provide meat