President Levy Mwanawasa has urged European Union (EU) countries to remove agricultural subsidies offered to their farmers to enable agricultural produce from Africa penetrate the European market.
President Mwanawawasa, who spoke on Trade and Development at the on-going EU-African Summit in Lisbon, said that Africa was losing a lot of money because of restricted agricultural exports imposed by Europe.
Dr. Mwanawasa who is also SADC Chairman revealed that Zambia was losing at least US$150 million per year on meat exports as a result of trade restrictions from European countries.
“My country could earn at least US$150 million per year on beef exports if the rules were to be relaxed.
“This amount is close to what the EU gives us in aid per year,” President Mwanawasa told the gathering of African and European leaders at the Lisbon Summit in Portugal.
The president said it was obvious that Africa was being denied the opportunity to earn itself a living through agricultural exports to Europe.
He said this was especially so because Africa’s competitiveness would continue to rely on agriculture for a long time.
Dr. Mwanawasa said due to the limited domestic market, the continent depended on outside market for much of its agricultural produce.
But for Africa to exploit the outside market, there was need for the elimination of agricultural subsidies for farmers in the industrialized world.
The president expressed disappointment that there had been no action taken so far to level the playing field in this area.
He said Africa was also disappointed about the hygienic conditions imposed by European countries on its agricultural exports when it was the same agricultural goods consumed by European tourists and officials in African.
Dr. Mwanawasa said in Zambia, many European officials carry the Zambian beef to consume in their countries when officially the same beef was facing export restrictions in their countries.
The president said there was need for Africa to increase its trade capacity but this required investment from EU countries in Africa.
He said EU investment in Africa was cardinal because investors from these countries have better technology, capital and market connections for African produce.
He said through exporting goods and services from Africa, the purchasing powers in African countries would gradually increase through payments for local inputs.
“In turn, this will boost local businesses through the expanding domestic markers,” President Mwanawasa said.
Dr. Mwanawasa urged African countries to eliminate the fears of the European investors, most of which was based on ignorance about conditions in individual African countries.
He said there was no need for such misconceptions given the long historical relationships between Africa and Europe.
export restrictions of beef are principally becoz we do not have a stringent regulatory framework to enforce the standard of the animals or the abbatoirs.alot of what we produce would fail even the most basic of quality control tests abroad.if the state invested heavily in quality control(via legislation and the bureau of stds) the West would take notice of us!Muzungu safuna gengete yatu so forget exporting beef to the EU!!
given that we cannot even control the standard/quality(bad language&insults) of posts on a simple blog like LT, how do you expect the West to even look in our direction!
Our neighbours Botswana earn millions of Euros from exporting beef to the EU. They are one of the biggest exporters of beef to the EU. I am sure those standards apply to them as well and they have not been given a bye. Our president Mwanawasa was in Botswana to look at the beef industry not too long ago (2 years maybe – I stand to be corrected) and was shown on Botswana TV touring the abbatoirs. Clearly nothing was learnt from that trip despite millions spent in tax payers money.
Botswana have a well funded and competent animal husbandry extension service.They are able to prevent and control animal disease outbreaks with the same speed and competency as their European counterparts.Furthermore Botswana has not allowed GMO crops to contaminate their food chain…a pre-requisite if you wish to export products like beef!!In Zambia we ridiculed LPM when he refused GMO aid foods and seed for crop production….maybe now Zambians can see why.
Farmers in the EU are controlled by the subsidies they are offered. Without that it may even be impossible for them to import from outside. Many of them are not allowed to produce beyond certain limits.
Ba Fizz(5),EU farmers spend so much money on quality control that without subsidies their final products could not compete given the current prices!!The EU in turn discourages African govts to give agricultural subsidies to protect their own!!Its a vicious cycle and the bottom line is the hypocrisy of the West is targeted to disadvantage African farmers !!