Early maize exports impress ZNFU

KETRA KALUNGA writes @SunZambian THREE-QUARTERS of the 42,000 metric tonnes of maize produced under the early maize tripartite agreement have been sold, says the Zambia National Farmers Union of Zambia (ZNFU). ZNFU media and public relations manager, Calvin Kaleyi said in an interview that the on-going export process was impressive and most of the maize […]

Early maize exports impress ZNFU
KETRA KALUNGA writes @SunZambian THREE-QUARTERS of the 42,000 metric tonnes of maize produced under the early maize tripartite agreement have been sold, says the Zambia National Farmers Union of Zambia (ZNFU). ZNFU media and public relations manager, Calvin Kaleyi said in an interview that the on-going export process was impressive and most of the maize has so far been exported. Mr. Kaleyi said the remaining few metric tonnes of early maize would be exported because the process was well coordinated. “The export of early maize is on-going and most of the maize has been exported, only a little is remaining, the process is healthy,” he said. Mr. Kaleyi said ZNFU is confident that all the early maize would be sold on the international market because Government has put in place a well-coordinated export process. Farmers signed an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture to grow 135,000 metric tonnes of maize to supply to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) for national food security but exceeded the targeted production. The government gave leeway to farmers to export the excess but lost the market opportunity because the directive came late as exports are time-bound. ZNFU then made an appeal to the government through the Ministry of Agriculture to allow the farmers to export the maize so that they do not incur a loss as the cost of producing early maize is high. The government came to the rescue of farmers who were already facing challenges with collecting money owed and would have risked losing millions of dollars if they had remained stuck with the unsold early maize.