‘We can meet all Food Lovers’ needs’

THE National Union of Small-Scale Farmers of Zambia (NUSFAZ) has refuted claims that local farmers have failed to supply fruit and vegetables to supermarkets due to limited production.

Food Lovers Makeni branch manager Himanga Wamunyima on Wednesday was quoted claiming that the supermarket imported 80 percent of the fruits and vegetables due to limited capacity by local farmers.

But NUSFAZ head of outreach and member services Emack Kaoma told the Daily Nation that the supermarket assertions were misplaced as they did not approach small-scale farmer organisations who represented the farmers.

“It is not true that small-scale farmers cannot supply fruits and vegetables to supermarkets, the challenge is that these supermarkets approach individuals, instead of farmer organisations which can supply any quantity, we have the capacity,” Mr Kaoma said.

He said small-scale farmers had organisations which were deliberately there to represent them if there was need for collective efforts in supplying products to companies that wanted bulk produce.

Mr Kaoma said for supermarkets to get satisfaction on fruit and vegetables, there was need for certain aggregation among small-scale farmers to be put in place.

He said the core business of farmer unions and organisations was to have small-scale farmers to operate in an organised manner.

Mr Kaoma said some supermarkets had insisted on approaching individual small-scale farmers because they were bent on exploiting them in terms of prices.