SMUGGLED onions have resulted in local produce wholesalers losing 20% of their business to imports and they are calling on government to address the issue.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Fresh Produce Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (FPMAZ) representative, Godwin Mushori told stakeholders at a breakfast meeting last Friday that as a result of the import of onions through unknown channels, local farmers were losing confidence in growing the produce.
“The wholesaler is not benefitting anyway because we are losing business, we do not have that onion which contributes 20% of our business. The farmer is not benefitting because the confidence in growing the plant is reducing, as they are seeing imports still coming into the country. We would like to see businesses being supported, but as long as the situation continues to be like this no one will benefit,” he said.
“In February, we ran out of onions. Now, we had another period of between February and July where people will not be having any onions in the shops and that is a very key plant, yet, we did not run out of the onions in the country. One way or the other, onions were finding their way into the country and still have that situation as of now.”
Mushori said the main products that contribute to fruit and vegetable wholesales are onions and apples.
The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA), Ministry of Agriculture and FPMAZ last year found that despite farmers growing fewer yields, onions were still finding their way into the country.
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According to research by the FPMAZ, potatoes were adequately provided for in the country.
Since the Ministry of Industry and Commerce carried an exercise to determine which products in the market could be easily accessed locally, they have been placing embargoes and higher import charges on imported goods to help local producers stay competitive.
“What we do is come up with a list of products, which farmers say they are able to produce in a certain period and agree on which ones we can import,” Mushori said.
