INCREASED INVESTMENT IN PROCESSING VITAL
THERE is need for more investment in processing in Zambia because a bumper harvest of any crop is less meaningful without value addition, Food Reserve Agency (FRA) executive director Chola Kafwabulula has said.
Mr Kafwabulula said in as much as Zambians had continued celebrating bumper harvests across the country, there was need for value addition. He explained that there was need to add value to the raw materials the country had been producing in order to reap more benefits. Mr Kafwabulula said in an interview that both the producers and the country could benefit more from local produce if they added value. He emphasised the need for more investment in processing, adding that a bumper harvest of any crop was less meaningful without value addition. Mr Kafwabulula pointed out that exporting raw materials was not as profitable as products that had been processed. “In as much as we are celebrating bumper harvest, let’s not forget that our friends are making more money by adding value to these produces. Even this maize, we can make more money as a country if we make coke flakes, feed and other products out of it,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Kafwabulula commended government for coming up with measures that would ensure the opening up of markets in neighbouring countries for local produces. He said that FRA wanted to be the first institution to benefit from the newly constructed roads such as the Mongu- Kalabo road by constructing ultramodern storage facilities for rice in Kalabo, earmarked for export into neighbouring Angola. Mr Kafwabulula also hailed government for the ongoing construction of the KalaboSikongo road, leading to the border between Zambia and Angola. He said that the new road would open up a market for local rice into Angola, which he indicated had a total population of over 23 million. Mr Kafwabulula pointed out that even if Angola had a large population, farming was not well embraced in that country because of land mines which remained planted in the soil after the war.