By MWAPE MWESA-
North-Western Province is known for its pineapple production.
The pineapples are sold in various parts of the country.
Ikelenge and Mwinilunga districts are the major producers of the fruit, with the former accounting for a larger share of the production.
Ikelenge District has about 5,000 pineapple farmers cultivating 920.5 hectares of land and a production of 17.3 million kilogrammes of pineapples, according to a 2022 crop forecast.
Since the closure of the Mwinilunga Pineapple Cannery in the 1990s, farmers have had challenges in marketing their produce because most of it goes to waste on account of the local market that cannot absorb the entire produce.
However, the establishment of the Kalene Hills Fruit Company, run by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), is going to change the narrative for the pineapple farmers. About 1,500 farmers are expected to benefit from the establishment of the fruit processing plant through an outgrower scheme, with the figure expected to grow to 5,000 in the first two years of the plant’s operation.
The K130 million fruit processing plant has capacity to produce three metric tonnes of fruit per hour at full capacity and about 24,000 metric tonnes per year.
With the lessons learnt from the now defunct Mwinilunga Pineapple Cannery, the IDC does not want to rely on pineapples alone, but a mix of other crops as well.
The plant will not only be producing pineapple juice, but other products such as tomato purees, pulps, baked beans, dry and canned fruits and peanut butter, among others.
The Kalene fruit processing plant has been an important undertaking for the IDC as the institution pursues its mandate of contributing to the growth of the country’s industrial base.
IDC Group Chief Executive Officer Henry Sakala said investment in value addition is critical to achieve growth of industry and enhancing competitiveness of products while creating meaningful job and business opportunities for the local people.
“Mwinilunga is well known for its large volume of pineapples local farmers produce. However, the returns, which should have accrued to them, are diminished by the lack of market, which results in loss and wastage,” Mr Sakala said.
He said the objective of establishing the plant was to provide a sustainable business that will present a ready market for the farmers and enable them to realise value for their produce.
“A study has shown that the demand for fruit juices in Zambia has grown in the recent past by about 50 per cent. This plant will, therefore, play a significant role in substituting imports and saving our forex,” Mr Sakala said.
He said the fruit plant has a production capacity of 24,000 metric tonnes of juice per year.
It will employ 150 people directly and 780 indirectly.
President Hakainde Hichilema, who recently commissioned the plant, called on the farmers to increase their production and supply the produce to the plant to sustain its operations as well as export what the local market cannot consume.
President Hichilema acknowledged that the region has a comparative advantage that the farmers should take advantage of by scaling up production and satisfy the yawning market in neighbouring Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“We should now be talking about how many more hectares are we going to put on pineapples, on tomatoes, mangoes, guavas? Even argue about the type of guavas, the one which is red when it ripens or the one which is white; those are good arguments,” Mr Hakainde said.
He advised the farmers to ensure that the plant always has raw materials so that it can operate at full capacity and continue to create jobs and business opportunities as well as change the economic landscape of the province.
“When we increase production, there will be more jobs here at the factory and outside, truck drivers going round to pick pineapples and bring them here for processing,” President Hichilema said.
He said his administration is working towards ensuring that the Jimbe Road is refurbished and the border opened to enhance trade between Zambia and Angola.
In addition, Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Chipoka Mulenga said the opening of the Kalene Hills Fruit Company is in line with the vision of moving Zambia from a country that consumes raw produce to one that adds value to it.
“Mr President, your message of value addition is not falling on dry ground, but on fertile ground. With such an industry, the vision of moving Zambia from a consumptive country to one that adds value is slowly becoming a reality,” Mr Mulenga said.
He said the fruit processing plant is part of the job creation efforts for the local people and will fulfil the economic vision of the United Party for National Development (UPND).
Mwinilunga Member of Parliament Newton Samakayi encouraged the farmers to establish orange and mango orchards to support the operations of the plant with different fruits throughout the year.
“This is an opportunity for all of us to try and engage ourselves into mango plantations, orange orchards, including tomatoes because these have been added to the production of the plant apart from pineapples which we know very well,” Mr Samakayi said.
The MP also appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture to send expertise to the region to help in identifying areas suitable for growing citrus fruits and other crops.
“We need our friends from agriculture to help our farmers identify areas where mangoes can be grown, lemons, tomatoes… so that we can support this facility. This facility has been brought here for the people of Mwinilunga and Ikelenge to feed it,” Mr Samakayi said.
Abel Kachaka, a tomato and pineapple farmer from Mwinilunga District, commended the Government for establishing the plant.
He said the factory will provide a ready market for the produce which has been going to waste due to lack of a market.
“We are happy as Mwinilunga farmers that we now have a market where to sell our tomatoes and pineapples. We have been having losses,” Mr Kachaka said.
The fruit processing plant is likely going to attract more people to engage in pineapple and tomato production due to the readily available market.
Coillard Mubita a, farmer from Ikelenge District, appealed to the Government to work on the road network leading to the farms so that transportation of the fruits is smoothened.
He said the roads become impassable especially during the rainy season when production is at peak and this hinder many farmers from transporting their crops.
Ikelenge District Agriculture Coordinator Bwalya Ponga said his office will have to enhance its extension services and equip the farmers with knowledge on how to maximize production and yields especially in horticulture whose production is said to be very low.
Mr Ponga acknowledged the opportunity presented to both the farmers and the ministry and urged all to take advantage by producing more to avoid the plant getting raw products from elsewhere.
“This is the message that we are trying to say to farmers in Mwinilunga, Ikelenge, Kalumbila; this is an opportunity because Mwinilunga alone and Ikelenge cannot manage to sustain the running of the factory,” Mr Ponga said.
He called on input suppliers to also take advantage of the opportunity and supply different seeds for different fruit that farmers can grow and supply to the plant.
Buy Zambia Campaign founder Evans Banda wants the farmers to overwhelm the plant with supplies through increased production.
Mr Ngoma said this will help bring about the much needed economic benefits.
“We wish this could be replicated in all the ten provinces of Zambia and beyond so that Zambia can economically be secure,” he said.
The IDC is expected to create bulk collection centres where farmers will take their produce and then transport it to the fruit processing plant.
The investment will not only provide a ready market for produce but also increase local capacity to meet the demand for locally manufactured fruit juices in the country.-ZANIS