Farmers cry fowl

By STEVEN ZANDE –
THE Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) has called on the Government to consider banning poultry product imports to help grow the local industry which is vital to revenue collection and job creation.
PAZ executive manager Dominic Chanda warned in an interview yesterday that maintaining imports of poultry products was equivalent to exporting Zambian jobs to other countries.
Mr Chanda said Zambian products were of high quality that matched internationally acceptable standards and the processors were all certified by the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS).
“We have more than enough capacity to feed the local and regional markets. Our target now is to penetrate the Angola market and that will help further expand our production levels. We recognise that the Government has regional treaties to respect, but that should not be done at the expense of local industries,” he said.
In 2016, the poultry sector supplied the local market with 129, 620 metric tonnes of chickens while the export market, which consisted of the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) consumed 10, 314 metric tonnes, indicating an excess of production against local demand.
And according to the latest World Bank report on Zambia, the poultry value chain is estimated to have created 83,103 jobs with over 70,000 jobs said to have  been created in the small scale sector while the production of soya bean, a major ingredient in chicke-feed, has increased exponentially to 267,496 in 2016 from 55,194 in 2007.
Vice chairperson Veronica Machungwa said there was need to ban poultry imports from the South African, United States and European Union (EU) markets whose products risked chocking local farmers.
Ms Machungwa said the ban was necessary to protect the domestic industries as practiced by many countries.
She said this in Lusaka on Monday when PAZ and the Tobacco Association of Zambia (TAZ) held a consultative meeting with Finance Minister Felix Mutati, Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya and their
Commerce and Trade counterpart Margaret Mwanakatwe.
PAZ also urged the Government to consider restricting the bran maize exports to ensure the local market had adequate stock for the local market.
Ms Machungwa said the local market consumed the produced bran, which constituted 10 per cent of the stockfeed hence the need to secure the stock locally to avoid running out.
She further appealed to the Government to consider increasing the number of days which poultry traders were allowed to sell their products at borders posts like Kasumbalesa.
Ms Machungwa lamented that local authorities at the border area allowed only two days in a week and charged exorbitant levies, thereby limiting growth among traders.
Mr Mutati reiterated that the Government was keen to grow the various units under the agriculture sector with a view to help achieve economic diversification and enhance job creation among other goals.
For this reason, the Government would enhance collaboration among line ministries in a bid to foster stronger collaboration and efficiency in growing various economic sectors of the country.