Government says it will not import wheat in a bid to protect local wheat farmers.
Vice President, Guy Scott has further assured wheat farmers in Mukushi farming block in Central Province that government will protect local farmers from unfair competition coming from imported products.
He says the farming block has contributed greatly towards Zambia’s economic development through massive investments.
And Mukushi Wheat Farmers chairperson, Newton Young called on government to provide more incentives to farmers.
He revealed that Zambia has in the recent past become self sufficient in wheat, the only country in the region not even South Africa which exports wheat to Zambia.
This was during the flagging off of the 2011-2012 planting season in Mukushi on Friday.
Meanwhile, Agriculture and Livestock Minister, Emmanuel Chenda has revealed that government has placed emphasis on the development of the sector.
He says the government does not just want to see a bumper harvest in maize but other crops as well.
[MUVITV]
Good move, its time we had faith in our production of things. Why is it that foreign stuff is always good in our eyes?
Guy Scott at it again – First of all that is such blatant protectionism which forfeits the purpose of our affiliation to regional trade groups like SADC and COMESA, why not issue bans on finished products to encourage the manufacturing sector. Non tariff barriers are the way forward. Bushe this government is full of talking heads??
Open the markets let the imports come in, subsidize yr farmers make yr local wheat cheap and affordable that is the way you kill out the imports
Tobomutwe yamoneka nakaili. Local wheat farmers won’t meet the demand. Kaunda tried this.
My people shall perish due to ignorance and lack of knowledge, thus says the lord. Zambians have for a long time held a destructive attitude that foreign products are superior and more satisfying. This attitude has had serious consequences on our economy which need to be reversed. We have often betrayed our local economy with this attitude leading to inadqaute investment in innovation and creativity to upgrade our products and services to international standards. A lot of resources have gone out ot foreign economies through imports negating our own local economy. I hope more attention will be paid to developing our capacities to produce and process our crops and livestock raw materials to satisfactory levels. We shoulddiversify and invest in maize to complement wheat for bread making.
Good move Mr VP. We need to protect local industries. Encourage wheet farmers to make their wheet cheap too.
In as much as we would like to support the Local Industry, can the VEEP please tell us how many of those Wheat Farmers are Zambians.. They are just a few Zimbabwean White Farmers who are making huge profits at the expense of gullible Zambians who have to buy expensive bread at the end of the day. Scott should carefully examine the trends in the market before making such pronouncements. Why should the imported wheat cost so much less than local wheat and expect the millers to make meaningful contributions to the country while they are exploited.. LET THERE BE A CLEAR LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR ALL..ONE ZAMBIA ONE NATION
We have an attitude of believing that foreign raw materials are superior to locally goods. This attitude need to be reversed. Its all about policy changes. Those foreign raw materials are subsidized at the cost of production in foreign origin and they get major gains for from exports.
But the reality is we can also subsidize our local wheat production and encourage many Zambians to take the lead in production. And eventually we can lower prices of finished products.
Let me give you a case scenario in Nigeria. They banned the importation of Barley in (Cereal used in Lager beers production) in order to encourage utilization of local cereals like sorghum and maize.In 5 years time they came up sorghum Lager beer made from 100% sorghum.
…contiue…What we need is policy shift from import dependence to utilization of our local raw materials. KK tried to ban coke cola, in those years and we came up with TIP TOP from pineapple, and other non alcoholic beverages from local fruits. Today we should have been talking of Mwinilunga pine apple cannery being functional but alas privatization eroded all the gains of manufacturing. I mean it became cheaper to trade than to manufacture
This is where you come in with policy that encourage manufacturing industries rather shipping local raw materials and wait for finished products