By KAIKO NAMUSA –
GOVERNMENT has been commended for suspending the issuance of licences for the importation of edible oil which is being produced by several local industries, a local manufacturer has said.

. Lubinda

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Given Lubinda recently suspended the issuance of importation licences for edible oil to allow experts to study the impact of the imports in the local market.
ZALCO Limited managing director Hussein Safieddine said the decision would not only benefit the agriculture industry by creating more jobs but would also promote value addition in Zambia.
Mr Safieddine said the manufacturing industry in Zambia faced the same challenges of importation of cheap products that had negatively affected ZALCO and other local manufacturers’ market share.
“For this reason we urge the Government to use the same strategy with us and take decisions that help protect our local manufacturing industry. This as well will create more jobs and encourage value addition of local resources,” Mr Safieddine said.
He said the Ministry of Finance should introduce duty on solar batteries in order to earn Government revenue and protect the local market from sub-standard products automotive batteries coming in as solar batteries.
“What is happening is that a lot of smuggled automotive batteries are coming in under the umbrella of solar batteries. There is no duty on solar batteries but we have the capacity to satisfy the local market with solar batteries,” Mr Safieddine said.
While ZALCO Limited was dedicated to producing quality products that met international standards and were certified by the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS), some importers were bringing in sub-standard goods.
“We find a lot of low quality products such as copper electrical cables, automotive and solar batteries and aluminium cooking pots are entering the Zambian market even though we have the experience and knowhow to produce much higher quality products locally,” he said.
Mr Safieddine also called on the Government to put tighter controls on the export of scrap metal as a lot of it was being smuggled out of the country, denying Zambia revenue and local manufacturers of raw materials.
Local producers of edibles oils had complained that cheap imported oil had flooded the country and threatened their existence and seed-based primary agriculture such as soya beans, sunflower and cotton seed production through backward linkages and the poultry industry through sideways linkages.