Overview of Congo
The Republic of Congo, is a sub-Saharan African country with combined land area of about 342,000km2 (Wikipedia). It is located in the Central African region, bothering countries like Cameroon Gabon, DR Congo and the Atlantic ocean with its capital in Brazaville.
Congo is not a landlocked country, it is blessed with a coastline of about 169km2 that houses two liner ports and a terminal port. The Congolese economy is largely dominated by oil production, which accounts for 80% of exports and 60% of domestic revenues (Coface). This oil dependency makes the country vulnerable to shifts in commodity prices.
Main Agricultural crops grown are Cassava, Sugar Cane, Oil Palm fruit, cassava leaves, Banana, Plantains, Root Tubers, Vegetables, mangoes and Guava. In Congo, agriculture contributes to 9.6% of
GDP and employs 34% of the active population (World Bank, 2020), most of whom practice subsistence farming. Though it possesses many fertile lands, only a minor part of these lands is cultivated (less than 10%).
Economic Snapshots
The Republic of Congo has three ports, housed on the coastline of 169km2. It is predominantly a Christian nation, Catholics (33.1%), Pentecostal (22.3%)Protestants (19.1%), Catholics(20%). French (official), French lingala and Monokituba are the languages spoken in the country. It is a lower middle income country with a GDP per capita income of about $1,830 (2020).
The GDP was about $11.37 Billion (2019). Inflation and unemployment rate is 1.8% (2020) and
10.3% respectively (Trading Economics), while about 58.5% of the country’s population is between 1-24years of age. The major products exported from Congo include Crude Petroleum ($3.57B), Refined Copper($2.22B), Special purpose ships($505M), Refined petroleum($303) and Rough wood ($248M).
Foreign company should be looking at producing or exporting the following products to Republic of the Congo, as its major imports are Passenger & Cargo ship ($121M), Poultry meat ($110M), Special purpose ships($83.5M), Palm oil (70.3M) and Cars ($69.4) (OEC 2020).