Speaking when Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Dr. Buleti Nsemukila visited the Plant last week, ZAFFICO Tea Company Chief Operations Officer Benhail Mukuka disclosed that the Company commenced production three weeks before the visit and the new management is aware of the challenges at hand but will manage to bring them under control and make the Company viable.

He said the irrigation system will be worked on and by March the system will be in perfect working order after looking at the pumps and pipes which were vandalized due to neglect.

Mr. Mukuka further disclosed that the tea fields had not been fertilized for a long time and the factory has a part that grinds the tea which has worn out and will need to be replaced for the production process to produce good and quality tea.

He said salaries for the workers will be paid on time as he had already done the budget and submitted to Lusaka for approval.

Mr. Mukuka confirmed that the Company has a promising and bright future as already Kenya is demanding for the Tea from the Plant because consumption of tea is east Africa in high and the local production capacity of tea is failing to satisfy the demand there.

He explained that the Company has already sent samples for the Kenyan market because the Company wants to target the higher markets so that it can raise more revenue to meet operational costs.

Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Dr. Buleti Nsemukila is happy that Government has identified the right Institution to run the Tea Estate with an innovative and visionary leadership.

Kawambwa District Commissioner Ivo Mpasa thanked Government for coming to the aid of his people through ZAFFICO Tea Company to revive production of the Tea Estate.

He urged the new management to consider increasing the tea hectarage under cover by 200 every year in order to raise the rate of employment for the people in the area.

And Mr. Mukuka said the target is to increase the workforce from the current 176 to 500 in order to meet the target of producing 30 tonnes of tea production per day.

The District Commissioner disclosed that the Estate was opened in 1976 by the first Republican President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda and was functional until 1991 when the privatization process crippled the company and brought it to its knees to the detriment of the welfare of the workers who were thrown into economic misery by the new owners of the Estate.

He said he is now happy that Government through ZAFFICO tea Company has come to the people’s rescue and has brought a new lease of life to the Estate which has over 60 years of production because the lifespan for tea is 100 years and the estate has only been existence for 40 years.

Meanwhile, Senior Chief Mushota of the Chishinga people of Kawambwa District has praised President Lungu for being a listening President and acting on the Kawambwa Tea Estate matter in the interest of the people.

Speaking when Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Dr. Buleti Nsemukila paid a courtesy call on him, the Senior Chief said President Lungu should be praised because he is a listening President.

He explained that traditional leaders in Kawambwa first met the President at Ilunga Lodge and tabled the matter before him for action and later he met them at Kala Camp for the Marine where he told them that ZAFFICO has taken over the Estate in accordance with their request to find a viable investor to revive the estate.

The Senior Chief said the new management under ZAFFICO Tea Company came to see him at his Palace three days before the PS went to visit him.

He added that the visit to his palace by the new Estate management confirmed that the Tea Estate will be revived and the workers will not lose their jobs.

Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Dr. Nsemukila said he had delayed to visit traditional leaders in the province from the time he was appointed in October last year because of the preparations for the National budget which kept him busy.

He said he is available for the traditional leaders in the Province and wants to work with them in bringing development to the people in their chiefdoms.

BIG supermarket chains in southern Africa are keeping away small local suppliers in the host countries, research findings have shown.

According to the research which examined the obstacles to accessing shelf space in supermarkets in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the local suppliers have not fully benefited from the mushrooming shopping malls and other chain-store supermarkets.

This is because of many reasons.

The research whose findings have been published in the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief is part of a series of studies titled “Barriers to Entry”, specifically looking at the expansion of regional supermarket chains in southern Africa.

The article draws from studies that look at the spread of supermarkets in the region and how the market power of large firms in different sectors can hold back economic development.
It reveals a range of costs that suppliers incur even before a single unit of their product is sold off supermarket shelves in each country.

Supplier development initiatives have been put in place by supermarkets and governments but have had limited success because they are restricted in scale and scope, and do not have a regional development perspective.

Long payment periods put considerable pressure on suppliers’ cash flow and working capital which is problematic particularly for small suppliers.

Local suppliers in Zambia raised this as a key reason for non-participation in supermarket value chains although it was a concern in all the countries studied.

“Over and above the advertising costs faced by suppliers themselves in creating brand awareness for their products, supermarkets require them to make a host of additional payments,” indicates an article on findings which also appeared in The Conversation.

Generally, large supermarket chains have considerable buyer power, and are often able to control pricing and trading terms with suppliers.

There is also a range of fees such as listing or support fees paid by suppliers to get their products listed in supermarket books.

“These fees can be prohibitive for small suppliers. Estimates of listing fees in South Africa range from US$350 to $3,500 per year for a single product line of a basic food item on the shelf.

“They can go as high as $17,000 to $20,000 for prime till positions for products like sweets and lollipops for a limited time period,” partly reads the report.

In terms of recommendation, there is a need for more co-ordinated, sustainable and regionally focused interventions.

These should aim to reduce barriers to entry by curbing supermarket buyer power and building capabilities of suppliers.

THE Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has raised the red flag over the increased importation of foreign agricultural produce which has adversely affected the local market.

ZNFU President Jarvis Zimba said in an interview that the union was not happy with the influx of externally-produced vegetables into the country.

Mr Zimba said some chain store supermarkets despite having been urged by Government to stock locally-produced agricultural products were still importing.

He said the trend had now extended to tomato and onions and posing a danger which was harming the growth of the local sector.

“We are very disappointed that Government has continued to issue permits to some chain-store supermarkets to import vegetables from South Africa which are also locally grown.

This trend is disadvantaging local farmers to grow their businesses,” he said.

Mr Zimba said some farmers were still having difficulties having their products stocked in chain-stores.

He expressed concern that that local producers had difficulty to sell their produce because they were denied access to chain-store supermarkets.

Mr Zimba said that tomato growers were currently recording losses because Tanzanians had continued bringing the same produce at cheaper prices.

He said that local tomato growers were spending a lot of money and resources to grow the crop due to the increase in the prices of the chemicals for tomato pests.

Mr Zimba has urged Government to limit the issuance of permits for products that were locally produced.

He said that farmers in the country were committed to contribute to the growth of the sector hence the need for them to compete favourably on the local market.