Govt to strengthen horticultural sector
Friday, 01 June 2012 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
GOVERNMENT will strengthen research and extension services in the horticultural sector to ensure the Horticultural Promotion Council is represented in regional and global trade negotiations. In a speech read on his behalf by his Permanent Secretary
Ngoni Masoka , Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made, recently said Government was committed to promoting the participation of smallholder farmers in the production of fresh produce.
“The Government Medium Term Plan 2011-12 recognises the importance of horticultural production to export generation capacity and employment creation.
“In this regard Government will facilitate the training of new horticulture farmers who need to meet certification requirements and processes that enable them to participate in the export market,” said Minister Made.
He was addressing delegates attending a field day held at the Prime Seed Research Station and Nursery at Gletwyn Farm in Harare recently.
The occasion also drew delegates from Switzerland, Kenya and South Africa, among others.
Minister Made described horticulture as a major foreign currency earner after tobacco and cotton accounting for approximately 4,5 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product.
“The agricultural sector ranks as one of the largest employers employing approximately 500 000 people with horticulture accounting for 15 percent of the figure.
“The major horticultural crops grown in Zimbabwe include tomatoes, onion, cabbage, kales, baby corn, mange tout peas, pepper, cauliflower and broccoli, which we have seen on our field tour today,” he said.
Tea, coffee, citrus, bananas and flowers, he said, had been some of the country’s major export crops in the past.
Minister Made said a lot of research and work had been done on horticulture production with various Horticulture Research Institutes across the country.
“Nyanga Research Institute has the mandate to conduct research on potatoes and deciduous fruits, Chipinge Coffee Research Institute does coffee and tea while
Marondera Horticulture Research Institute does brassicas and solanaceous crops among others.
“Private companies like Prime Seed Group and institutions like ART Farm are also involved in horticulture research work. More, however, still needs to be done to develop new varieties better adapted to the local climatic conditions and breeding for pest and disease tolerance in horticulture,” said Minister Made.
He also revealed that Zimbabwe used to export close to 20 000 tonnes of horticultural produce in the 1990s and had grown to export over 80 000 tonnes by 2001.
Despite experiencing a 56 percent drop in export volumes afterwards, the industry had started showing signs of recovery as of 2007 to the present, said Minister Made.
“The country has the capacity to export close to 200 000 tonnes of horticultural produce annually with major exports including mange tout peas, sugar snap peas, runner beans, baby corn, sweet corn, broccoli and courgettes.
“Passion fruit, plums, mangoes, nectarines and raspberries have also been identified as export winners and are being exported in increasing volumes,” he commented.
Minister Made also challenged Government to come up with a horticultural crop development authority to spearhead the development of the horticultural sector like Kenya has done.
In an interview on the sidelines of the field day, Prime Seed managing director, Mr Willie Ranby, challenged farmers to visit the Prime Seed Research Station and Nursery on any day for assistance and not just wait for field days.
“We are here 365 days a year and farmers should take advantage of that to come and seek technical assistance to improve their yields,” he said.
Labels: HORTICULTURE, JOSEPH MADE, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION (ZIMBABWE)
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Horticulture exports fall sharply — council
Thursday, 09 June 2011 22:05
By Obert Chifamba
THE Horticulture Promotion Council says deterrent freight charges, high production and export-related costs had caused a steep decline in horticultural exports over the last seven years.
HPC chief executive Mr Basilio Sandamu yesterday said the planes they contracted to ferry produce were failing to get southwards bound cargo and were only getting northwards bound cargo. This, he said, had made it very expensive to contract them as their charges were designed to make up for all the losses incurred.
Freight charges constitute 55 percent of all the costs of production.
"In the past there were between four and five flights to European markets every week but now there are only three, which reflects that export volumes have fallen sharply.
"Last year we exported seven million kilogrammes of flowers down from the traditional 24 million kilogrammes per year in good years," explained Mr Sandamu.
He said it was now critical for the industry to maintain the current 7kg mark and start building from there as any further descent would be disastrous and would also give regional competitors like Kenya and Uganda more edge over Zimbabwe.
"Critical mass is key in making a footprint on the markets.
"It is a game of volumes so we must maintain our grip on the market to be taken seriously," he added.
He said Zimbabwe enjoyed preferences in EU markets under the EU/ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) agreement that enabled it to export flowers duty free.
At the moment the country sends 85 percent of its flowers to EU destinations through the Dutch auction floors, which makes it vital to access cheap funds to refurbish infrastructure and re-plant new varieties while expanding the area under production.
"In the past we used to have 400ha under horticulture, now it is less than 150ha. We are currently operating at 30 percent of our full potential.
"The most painful fact is that we have very good growing conditions and highly skilled personnel," lamented Mr Sandamu.
Furthermore, he said funding constraints had seen farmers failing to refurbish greenhouses or replace old varieties with new ones to keep pace with developments on the markets.
"Farmers have no access to cre- dits.
"This comes against a background of the liquidity crunch that has seen prices for basic export requirements like the CD 1 form rising from US$50 in the recent past to the current US$250 for a single pad.
"Indirectly, this is taxing farmers and compromising viability," he said.
Mr Sandamu said phytosanitary, Zimra and nursery charges accompanied by the SADC and EUR 1-certificate costs made it very difficult for farmers to operate viably.
In the end the costs of exporting end up higher than the returns, which discourages farmers from producing for the export markets.
Additionally, very high production costs are making life difficult for farmers, as they need 16 Euro to establish a square metre of a green field while a hectare needs 160 000 Euro.
To break even the farmer needs to have planted nothing less than 5ha in which the first 18 months will be without an income.
"Working capital of 40 000 Euro per hectare per year is also needed, which is difficult for the current crop of farmers. In the past those who excelled used proceeds from tobacco and other crops to fund horticulture.
"There was a lot of cross subsidisation and this made it possible for the farmers to survive before they even started reaping anything from their horticultural projects," further explained Mr Sandamu.
Horticultural earnings now contribute between 1,5 and 2 percent to the country's GDP, down from a high of 5 percent in the recent past.
"Farmers are no longer re-capitalising but only maintaining what is there leaving us operating at a fifth of what we used to do in 2001.
"There are economic fundamentals to be addressed first, failure of which the industry is doomed to continue singing the blues," he said.
Labels: FREIGHTER FORWARDERS, HORTICULTURE
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Flower business begins to bloom as global economy recovers
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Thursday, October 08, 2009 4:43:09 PM
ZEGA Limited managing director Colin Rhoda has said the booming period for Zambian exports of fresh flowers and vegetables has started following signs of recovery in the world economy.
During the simultaneous landing of two B747 freighters that brought in products as well as uplifting of exports from Zambia at the Lusaka International Airport yesterday, Rhoda said the development showed positive signs of a good flower export this season.
"The signs are promising for a good flower export season this year especially that the industry took a severe battering last year as a result of the world economic recession as well as the exorbitant cost of Jet A1 fuel in Zambia, which is the highest in the region,” said Rhoda. "Since the global recession is showing signs of recovery, we are hopeful that the authorities concerned will assist in reducing the cost of Jet A1 fuel so that the country can attract more carriers which will be beneficial to, not only the horticultural and floricultural industry, thus ensuring the survival of the industry and safeguarding many jobs, but benefiting the tourism industry as well.”
And Zega Limited operations manager Roy Situmbeko said the freight carriers, Cargolux and MK Airlines, were dropping off incoming freight as well as uplifting exports from Zambia.
"In the case of Cargolux, an uplift of 30 tonnes of export roses and vegetables was recorded, confirming Zambia’s rose export season has begun in earnest and the arrival of both freighters meant that Zega Limited had to employ the use of their full fleet of ground handling equipment to ensure the prompt turnaround of both aircraft,” said Situmbeko.
“It was all in a normal days’ work and the day started in earnest with the dispatch of the morning South African Airways passenger and South African Airways Cargo freighter. The SAA freighter uplifted16 tonnes of export perishables bound for European market through Johannesburg. The Zambezi Airlines and SAA midday frequency to Johannesburg also uplifted fresh produce.”
Labels: HORTICULTURE
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Govt seeks to revive horticultural sector
New Ziana.
The Government is drawing up a revival plan for the horticulture sector that has registered a sharp decline in productivity in the last decade due to various challenges. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the plan was part of efforts by Government to boost productivity in the lucrative sector.
He said the ministry would continue to support the sector through promoting joint ventures, public private partnerships (PPPs), lines of credit, mechanisation and development of policies that are conducive to production.
Dr Made, who was addressing participants at a one-day stakeholder meeting on strategies to revive the horticultural industry, disclosed that Government was also crafting a new agriculture strategy.
He said the strategy was envisaged to boost production and ensure the country realised food self-sufficiency and foreign currency through exports.
The workshop, jointly organised by the Horticultural Promotion Council, Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), ran under the theme "Renaissance of the horticultural sector in Zimbabwe."
Dr Made said new players should enter into the sector especially smallholder farmers who he said should be supported through partnerships with established players or by external investors. CFC managing director Ali Muchumo said Government and the horticultural sector should collaborate to come up with an effective revival strategy.
"It should be a sector plan and not a Government plan," he said.
The CFC is an autonomous inter-governmental development financing institution established within the framework of the United Nations. It has a total of 107 signatory member states. — New Ziana.
Labels: HORTICULTURE, JOSEPH MADE, ZIMBABWE
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ZEGA urges Africa to exploit world trade
By Fridah Zinyama
Friday August 15, 2008 [04:00]
ZAMBIA Export Growers Association (ZEGA) has urged other African countries dealing in horticulture to take advantage of world trade which has increased five fold over the last 20 years. According to ZEGA chief executive Luke Mbewe in a presentation at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) business forum,
Africa’s share of world trade has virtually halved from 4.5 per cent to 2.6 per cent over the period.
However, he noted that Asia’s share in world trade had however increased significantly over the period. Mbewe said production for vegetables in Zambia has been growing with the increase in participation of small-scale growers.
“But most farmers still have a long way to go since there are a lot of requirements which have to be met before their products can enter certain markets,” he said. “Issues of quality play an important role and most of the horticulture markets have set stringent measures in place for all exports entering their markets.”
He said countries in the region could take advantage of the increase in world trade despite the many challenges which have to be faced.
“Most countries which most African countries export to like Europe and the United States have stringent standards to fulfil,” Mbewe said.
He said there was also discriminatory enforcement of standards by application of higher standards on imports.
Mbewe added that most of the countries would have to improve the quality of their products if they are to enter some of these markets.
“But in improving quality, the farmers will have to incur the high cost of training and certification which is quite expensive for them,” said Mbewe.
Labels: COMESA, EXPORTS, HORTICULTURE, LUKE MBEWE, ZEGA
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Zim seeks funding for horticultural projects
Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE is seeking more funding for small horticultural projects from the Netherlands-based Common Fund of Commodities, Herald Business was told recently. CFC is an inter-governmental financial institution established within the framework of the United Nations responsible for the development of commodities-based economies.
Already, the institution has provided US$2,2 million to finance TZI Limited’s horticultural projects in Cashel Valley, Macheke, Uzumba-Maramba and Dotito.
Beneficiaries under the TZI project are involved in growing fresh vegetables for the export market, particularly to the leading United Kingdom retailers.
Officials from the Horticultural Promotion Council are understood to be in the Netherlands, were they are discussing with CFC "to provide funding for horticultural projects at a much bigger scale.
We have seen how the TZI initiative is working and it’s quite positive for our smallholder farmers and the industry at large," said HPC official.
"It will be for the interest of the country to take this initiative at a larger scale and HPC is already in negotiations with the CFC," the official added.
Inadequate funding has adversely affected horticultural production, now dominated by small-scale farmers, a development that culminated in a steep fall in the production of fresh produce.
The sectors used to be among the country’s major foreign currency generators and employers.
CFC’s specific mandate is to support developing countries that are dependent on commodities to improve and diversify commodities production and trade.
Its funded projects typically have a market development and poverty alleviation orientation.
Currently, the fund has a membership of 106 countries.
Institutional members include the European Community, the African Union, East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The secretariat is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, ZIMBABWE
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