LAST week, my article focussed on Zambia’s plan to extend the Pre–export Verification Of Conformity (PVoC) programme to other products, besides motor vehicles in an effort to promote the quality and safety of the products.
This week, I will discuss the subject of food imports and articulate on what the country needs to do to remain competitive on the market.
On Monday (February 22, 2016), I accompanied Finance Deputy Minister Christopher Mvunga to Katima Mulilo border post in Sesheke District, Western Province on his familiarisation tour of the border facilities.
During the tour, I noted interesting trade matters which prompted me to write something on food imports this week.
Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Katima Mulilo station manager Collins Sichivula told Mr Mvunga that the border post mainly handled imported chickens as well as fish and meat products, including offals.
Various products are imported from Europe and America through Walvis Bay in Namibia via Katima Mulilo border post on their way to the Zambian market.
Mr Sichivula went on to say that the border post was also clearing fish from China and Namibia.
He said many companies and individuals were involved in the importation of the said food products.
The imported products are usually destined for Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces where there is demand for the items.
Many other things were said on the operations of the border post but my main interest is on the imported food products in question.
Asked to comment on the continued importation of chickens, fish and meat products when the country had plenty of such products, Mr Mvunga said the matter was an interesting one.
He said that Government policy was that the country should be self-sufficient in food production and should be exporting more of such products ideally.
This is a million dollar question because Zambia has so much land to boost production. Ideally, we should not import such products. Government policy is that we should produce sufficient food for the domestic market and export the excess.
“This is where the private sector partnership comes in and what it indicates to the business perspectives is that there is an opportunity to develop all these industries, the fact that these products are consumed and imported,” he said.
Mr Mvunga said President Edgar Lungu had emphasised on greater import substitution and this was why the Government was currently promoting fish farming, among other measures to boost production locally.
For instance on February 20 last year, Vice-President Inonge Wina presented a cheque of K4.1 million  to Kambashi Bream Fish Outgrowers Society in Northern Province to facilitate for further investment in fish production and processing.
The initiative is expected to create 200 direct jobs on Chilubi Island in the production, processing and marketing of fish.
“I understand that Zambians import fish and even offals which pass through this border. It is good if imports are declining because the more exports you have the more foreign exchange earnings you will have, especially on things that we can produce locally.
“Our farmers should be producing enough for the local and export markets. We need to ask ourselves if the imports are cheaper than the local products. I thought Southern Province was self-sufficient in terms of beef and chickens?” Mr Mvunga asked.
He was of the view that the country should not ban the importation of food products but that it should focus on producing  more food locally.
“We should be more competitive locally than importing food products overseas but again there are issues of job creation.
“Agriculture is labour0-intensive and this is one area where you can add jobs to the industry and help end unemployment,” Mr Mvunga said.
While we all know that the changes in the economic policy of Zambia led to the introduction of an open market economy around 1992, I still feel that the importation of chickens, fish and offals raises eyebrows in the domestic economy.
Further, the revelation by ZRA that some of the fish is imported from Namibia raises some questions, especially that both Zambia and Namibia get the resource from the same Zambezi River.
When Zambia is having a fish ban like the case is now, fishing activities are halted on the Zambian side of the Zambezi River in an effort to increase the fish population.
Surprisingly, the fish ban does not affect Namibia which shares the same river with Zambia and hence one may speculate that imported fish from that country comes from the same ‘restricted’ area.
From the outset, I must state clearly here that there is nothing wrong for any country, individuals or firms to import food products in their quest to meet the demand and quality locally.
For example, much of the food consumed in the United States of America, which is the largest economy in the world, is imported, including an estimated 60 per cent of fresh fruits and 80 per cent of seafood.
Imports are good in that they bring about competition and help local consumers have a wider choice of products instead of subjecting them to some inferior products which are locally manufactured.
However, not every food product can be imported and this is why some countries usually impose restrictions on some products.
For instance, the European Union (EU) market usually imposes Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in an effort to protect humans, animals and plants from risks arising from imported goods.
This is why it is interesting to hear that Katima Mulilo border post now mainly imports chickens, fish and meat products such as offals from overseas when the country has plenty of such commodities locally.
Ideally, it is much cheaper to produce the said food products locally than to import them from overseas.
Zambia should focus on producing more of such products and export the excess to the international market and get foreign exchange earnings which would ultimately create more jobs in the domestic economy.
Arguably, one may conclude that the local industry in Zambia has failed to meet the demand for such products and that is why creative and innovative entrepreneurs have continued importing the said food products.
It may be tricky for the Government to ban the importation of food products to protect the local industry if local producers have no capacity to supply the market or if the quality of products on offer locally leaves much to be desired.
The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, has been promoting self-sustenance in food production but the situation at Katima Mulilo border post suggests that the country needs to do more in this area.
Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda, his Livestock counterpart Greyford Monde and other experts in the agriculture sector have consistently been emphasising the need for Zambia to transform its potential of being the breadbasket for the region into reality.
“Historically, Southern Province has been known to be the breadbasket for Zambia. The province has been producing sufficient crops, livestock and fisheries for itself and the nation at large.
“Similarly, Western Province has been producing sufficient fish and livestock products as well as crops such as rice, cashew nuts and tobacco due to abundant water. Currently, the two provinces have not maintained their status and one wonders as to what has happened. We ought to start walking the talk and not just live on dreams,” Mr Lubinda said in Livingstone last year during a stakeholders’ meeting.
Already, the Zambian Government has put up measures to enable agriculture as well as livestock and fisheries to take their rightful position in the development of the country’s economy.
However, there is need for all players in the private sector to ensure that Zambia attains its potential of being self-sufficient in terms of agriculture as well as fisheries and livestock to enable the country export the commodities abroad.
Further, the country needs to invest more in research and development, extension services, livestock production and disease control, rural infrastructure especially feeder roads and appropriate irrigation facilities to promote growth in the sector.
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda is of the view that the world population by 2050 will be more than 10 billion people and will need to eat cereals, proteins, beans, fish and dairy products, among others.
Mr Chikwanda says fish is an important protein for the world community but there is a big scandal which has been allowed in Zambia.
He said Zambia was importing about 50,000 tonnes of fish from dirty waters from the Far East.
Mr Chikwanda was speaking in December last year when the Government gave Inyambo Community Development Trust (ICDT) a loan of K3.3 million to boost fish production for the Mwandi Integrated Fish Farm project in Western Province.
“The Far East has so many people and their water is severely polluted and we are eating fish from waters which are not as clean as ours.
“We are losing a lot of foreign exchange, no wonder this country runs out of foreign exchange and the Kwacha begins to drop very fast in relation to the dollar because even the things we can produce locally like fish, we are importing them. We should be exporting fish to the Far East region,” Mr Chikwanda said.
He noted that Zambia had attacked poverty from very lofty platforms and long speeches instead of being pragmatic.
People of Mwandi needed to embrace the project and later flood Western Province and other parts of Zambia with finger limbs.
“Let us grow the fish and that way we will be widening the franchise of unity in Zambia. Fish grows very fast. We are being very selfish and eating fish which is supposed to grow on a large-scale. We must think of future generations,” he said.
Clearly, both the Government and private sector know what is needed to boost food production to supply to the local and international markets.
All we need to do is to tap on this potential to enable Zambia become the real breadbasket for the region and enhance foreign exchange earnings and ultimately create more job opportunities in the domestic economy.
For now I will end here and wait for your comments and contributions to the subject.
Send to bmhats@gmail.com or call 0977 6660664