Maravi

(LUSAKATIMES) Zambia exports $1.8bn manufactured goods

Zambia exports $1.8bn manufactured goods
TIME PUBLISHED - Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 8:29 am

THE Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) says Zambia exported US$1.842 billion worth of manufactured products to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern AfricanDevelopment Community(SADC) regions.

Most of the manufactured products exported from Zambia’s manufacturing sector are food and beverages which have a bigger share of 63 percent of the exports.

“There is vast investment potential for food processing in the country, covering both large and small-scale industries, and most of it includes foods and beverages,” it says in a statement made available to the Mail in Lusaka recently.

“However, the processing of grocery products such as cold meats, biscuits, tinned foods, jam and cheese are largely underexploited and crops such as paprika have been gaining prominence as crops with export potential and have a low capital input requirement to process,” it says.

It says huge investment potential also exists in the manufacturing of electrical appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, computers, television sets and fans looking at the high demand for imports of electronic goods in Zambia of about US$40 million per annum.

It says Zambia’s domestic demand for manufactured products exceeds US$2 billion per annum.

And according to ZDA agriculture sector officer Paul Siame, exports of agriculture products from Zambia to the COMESA region are between US$ 125-140 million while the export to the SADC region are between US$140 to 170 million per annum.

Mr Siame said given the vast resources in terms of land, labour and water, Zambia has the potential to expand agricultural production.

Some of the potential priority areas for investments in the agricultural sector are in sugar, wheat, maize, cotton, tobacco, cashew nuts, and cassava, Mr Siame said.

Labels: EXPORTS, GDP, MANUFACTURING

posted by MrK @ 3:42 PM