Katanga Province Governor in the Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC- Celestine Pande Kapopo has appealed to President EDGAR LUNGU to allow for a coordinated and consistent export of mealie-meal to his country.
Mr. Kapopo says Katanga and other adjacent provinces like Kolwezi have a huge challenge in feeding their citizens because many of them have abandoned agriculture to concentrate on mining.
Speaking when Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo paid a courtesy call in Lubumbashi, Mr. Kapopo said Zambia remains a key partner in trade of mealie-meal with the DRC.
He said his country has a huge market which Zambia should take advantage of to earn more foreign exchange and increase the volume of trade between the two countries.
And Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo promised to convey the request to President Lungu.
He said Zambia has many colleges of agriculture which can offer technical expertise and training to the people of Katanga as they embark on agriculture transformation.
This is why Bowman jumped on that jet to go and offload FRA Maize stocks using proxy companies.
Even DRC know that Lazy Lungu has chipante policies…
Do we really need to export maize with this drought?
Let farmers who spent a lot of money on maize production get back their money through export. You want farmers to be producing maize for you free of charge??? Yes I support the move by GRZ.
Let there be export in $ this is the way forward but let us keep what we need and further our Zambian products only in maize mill who can on $payment
Leave farmers alone to get their profit through export than the good for nothing price you offer them always. Farmers should be encouraged to produce more by giving them good price. Now this is a good opportunity farmers have to make profit on their produce. Amen.
DRC is very clear that people in Katanga and Kolwezi have abandoned Agriculture for Mining. They are interested in Maize imports from Zambia and not provision of technical information from Zambian Agriculture Colleges. Technical expertise should instead be provided to Zambian farmers to increase their maize production per hectare and export more maize to DRC. This market is huge and could benefit our farmers if properly exploited.
Why they don’t allow farmers to make money? Why when person takes scrap metal out of the country he is hailef as a busibess man but when farmer takes his maize out of the country is called a smuggler? Not good