Zambia: Millers Association Says Country Facing Soya Beans Shortage

Text of report by state-owned national newspaper Zambia Daily Mail website on 1 September

[Report by Mukula Mukula: "Zambia Faces Soya Beans Shortage"]

Zambia has a shortfall of 20,000 metric tonnes of soya beans, which has led to price increases of stock feed, Millers Association of Zambia vice-president Peter Cottan has said.

Mr Cottan said in Kitwe at the weekend that measures had been put in place to import 20,000 tonnes of soya beans to meet the demand for stock feed.

He said his association would ask Government to waive the 15 per cent duty import duty on soya beans to reduce the impact of the increasing prices of stock feed.

Mr Cottan said it would be cheaper to buy the commodity within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region because the 15 per cent would not apply.

Mr Cottan said Zambia required 65,000 metric tonnes of soya beans to meet demand for stock feed but only produced 45,000 tonnes because of the floods that affected most parts of the country.

He urged farmers to plant more soya beans this year because his association was working out modalities of ensuring that farmers were offered a good price for the crop.

He said unlike maize that was heavily dependent on fertilizers, soya beans was cheaper to grow because it required less fertilizers.

On the increase of mealie meal prices, Mr Cottan said the rise in fuel prices inevitably led to the rise in the price of the staple food because of increased transportation costs.

He said the average cost of a 50 kilogramme bag of maize from the rural area was K45,000 [kwacha] but the price is increased to K60,000 because to transportation one bag cost K15,000.

He said the purchase of maize from farmers around the country was going on well and National Milling Corporation had so far bought 45,000 tonnes and was looking forward to buy another 50,000 tonnes before the end of the marketing season.

Mr Cottan also attributed the raise in general prices of consumables to the continued load shedding by Zesco limited which he said created artificial shortages of goods because manufacturing companies were not producing at full capacity.

He also noted that the death of President Mwanawasa would not affect most of the investors because they still had a lot of confidence that Government would handle the transition without any problem.

He said there would be no major changes in the economy although the coming presidential by-election would create a wait and see situation among investors.

Originally published by Zambia Daily Mail website, Lusaka, in English 1 Sep 08.

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