Government is considering options of expanding Zambia’s export markets to other regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo other than Lubumbashi.
Luapula Province Minister Mr. Chilangwa who led a delegation of Ministers and technocrats on a bilateral engagement with the DRC in Kinshasa says there is also need to exploit a yawning market of Zambian goods and products in Kinshasa instead of just focusing on Lubumbashi.
ZANIS reports that the Minister said this when he, Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Vincent Mwale and Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Minister Raphael Nakachinda toured one of Kinshasa’s city market one the most popular supermarkets.
Mr. Chilangwa says the tour of the supermarket was aimed at sampling the pricing structure of goods and products that Zambia produces for exports.
He is however shocked that despite the DRC being one of Zambia’s largest consumer markets there is no single Zambians product on the shelves in the sampled supermarkets in Kinshasa.
The Minister said the delegation will be escalating the proposal to consider airfreight services for the shipment of goods directly to Kinshasa adding that the mode is being used between Lubumbashi and the capital city.
“My colleagues (Ministers Vincent Mwale and Raphael Nakachinda) and I came here (City Market) to sample the prices of various goods and products. For example would you believe that a kilogram of goat meat is about USD25 while a pack of tomatoes is about USD18. The goods are priced in such a way that you can’t resist this trading opportunity. This is interesting. We have all those agricultural products that we can introduce to Kinshasa,” said Mr. Chilangwa.
“What is surprising is that despite the goods stocked here being from all over the world, there is no single product from Zambia. We have sugar, rice, enough beef, goat meat, mealie meal and many more and there are about 13 million people in Kinshasa alone who want to eat. Let’s not just focus on Lubumbashi; we can trade with Kinshasa too,” he said.
And Mr. Mwale said the construction of the Kasomeno Mwenda toll road and Luapula Bridge will be an enabler of more trade between Zambia and the DRC as both small scale and large scale industries will have more access to the market by road.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nakachinda is satisfied with initial negotiations on the possibilities of establishing the Luapula River Authority.
Mr. Nakachinda said the Luapula River Authority will help in the prudent management of the Luapula River resource.
He has described the trip to DRC as successful.
Africa unite. This will anger a lot of upnd diasporans who want to see us fail..but the lord is protecting us Africans. Soon we will be more powerful than the west.
Very good
Ah, i thought exporting goods(food in particular) to neighboring countries by hardworking and enterprising citizens is crime in this country under the PF regime. Its called “smuggling”.
There is some much potential for inter-African trade, but this can only actualize with good leadership on the continent.
in extreme cases, you will find goods produced in Africa are accessed by other African countries by importing the same goods from EU or America. Its such a shame!
Whats there to consider….when this market is already being taken advantage of by our businessmen. You should be talking about policies to make this market conducive for our local businesses.
Government considering expansion of export market to DRC after 60 years of being neighbouring independent states sure? NiMadziko ya bwanji aya?
“…He is however shocked that despite the DRC being one of Zambia’s largest consumer markets there is no single Zambians product on the shelves in the sampled supermarkets in Kinshasa….”
At the 11th hour , that’s when they are waking from the permanent slumber ….
Go back to sleep…….hopless
For fudge’s sake. Havent we all being talking about how we need to legalize the maize trade with the DRC? the government has been putting resources to prevent ‘smuggling’ and we have been arguing that this is a business opportunity to take advantage of! Our farmers, transporters and of course ZRA will have twice their earnings.
And now they say we went there, we had a succesful meeting, thats expected of politicians like Nakacinda.
We have oil in Angola, our ministers go there and say we had succesful meetings but still export from Middle East.
They are just politicking. They won’t do anything about this. There’s trade between Zambians and Congolese every day from Luapula through copper belt to North West The government chooses not to see the trade pretending no commerce happens without a state sanctioned bilateral agreement. Why do they not sign this after all these years? They are lazy and don’t want to do what is expected of them.
That’s a great idea honorable especially with the earmarked construction of the bridge across the Luapula river
They have been in govt 10 years and today they wake up …this is typical of a kakistocracy govt.
It’s great news… The Democratic Republic of Congo and can be a good source of foreign income for the country
It is a welcome move considering foreign exchange
CONSIDERING! Really?
Is it not long overdue.
Tucili muma considering nanomba?
MANGALO SANA.
This would be of benefit to the two countries
The bilateral agreement with Congo will help expand our export markets
This seems good it will also help boost revenue
It will be great. Congo DR has readily available market
How can you export to Congo DR if there are export bans by GRZ almost the whole year?