MANUFACTURING AN ECONOMIC HOPE IN THE SILVER LINING
LAST Saturday a colleague from old days called me. He asked if I could remember him from the time he was at Refined Oil Products (ROP) Zambia Limited in Ndola and his days as a referee at Strike Rovers football club.
“I am in Lusaka, each time I come on the Copperbelt and pass through my former city I imagine what has happened to what used to be my company for many years,” he said.
I assured him the building is still there but the activities are different. We then went down memory lane to discuss the dwindled manufacturing sector in Zambia. Remembering Serioes Zambia Limited and ZAMEFA in Luanshya, Swarp Spinning mills in Ndola, Dunlop Zambia, Colwyn Low and Bonar, and Zambia Ceramics in Kitwe.
Outside the Copperbelt, more came to mind, Kafue Textiles, Livingstone Motor Assemblers, ITT Zambia then manufacturers of radio and television sets plus record players, the Toyota truck assembling plant in Kasama and Mansa Batteries.
I came to Ndola in 1978, though the city is the capital of the Copperbelt, a mineral producing region, it was also famed for manufacturing companies such as Furncoz, Zambia Limited, Land Rover Zambia among those and others more.
The change of government in 1991 and new policies whittled down the once flouring manufacturing industry. The economy was opened up bringing in new companies and killing our own.
One of the areas badly affected was the textile industry. Other than imported fabric the country also saw a huge flow of second hand clothes from shirts, dresses to shoes, belts and underwear.
Along the way cotton farmers most of whom were in Central province and provided raw materials to clothe manufacturers were left in abeyance. The next economic segment to be hit was the agricultural industry. As South African outlets sprouted, Zambia saw an equal rise in imports from the south ranging from vegetables, tomatoes and poultry products to frozen chips. The local farmer simply sat down and grumbled after being told he/she needed to improve the quality of the produce to compete with imported foods. Yet the chain stores insisted on importing agricultural produce to support and provide market for their own farmers back home
Last Friday President Lungu provided hope to this long standing problem of chocking food imports. While briefing the country on the state of the prevalence of the covid 19 he said, “For every dark cloud there is a silver lining.
He observed that as Zambia grapples with the ravaging virus the economy will be battered and thus directed that there will be need to boost and support local industries for the country to survive.
The president ordered that the chain supermarket stores must support farmers by buying their produce from them. He implored the Ministry of Commerce and industry to ensure that only what can not be found in the country should be imported.
There could have been no better news for local farmers. Admittedly there is a strong case to stop food imports to concentrate on buying local products. More than 50 years of Independence it does it make sense that Zambia should be importing cabbage, rape, spinach, tomatoes and potatoes from outside when every day the same produce from local farmers rot at Soweto market in Lusaka, Masala in Ndola and Chisokone in Kitwe?
How does it help the nation to import pine apples from South Africa or where ever when our own relatives in Mwinilunga can’t sell their produce in this country? Will it help matters to import beans when my villagers in Mbala, Mpulungu Senga Hill, grow so much just like their colleagues in Solwezi, Luwingu, Chama and Lundazi?In the last few years there has been an honest attempt to improve the road network in Zambia so much that there are now fewer problems in hauling farm produce from rural areas to the Copperbelt and Lusaka.
I often do not agree with claims that the local produce is of low standard. If anything Zambian produced tomatoes, onions, or vegetables are not only the safest but nutritious as they are less chemicalised or simply have no chemicals of any sort at all.
Not Long ago there was a Mango processing plant in Mongu. Then Copperbelt bottling in Kitwe began producing a soft drink called Tip top from Mwinilunga Pine Apples. Copper harvest in Ndola canned a variety of food stuffs.
Products from the above outlets began finding their way across the border. In the textile manufacturing world Chitenge from Mulungushi textiles in Kabwe began competing with fabrics from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Many Zambians who travelled to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and other SADC countries will recall how popular chitenge material from Mulungushi became among the women folk beyond the country’s borders.
Imagine if Tip top bottling, textile production at Mulungushi motor assembling in Livingstone and Kasama had continued where would the country be today?
The corona virus outbreak may be a catastrophe but it can be used to seek opportunities that can help Zambia’s economic resurgence programme to shift away from depending on food imports.
Those a little order will remember that at the height of the liberation struggle Zambia stopped importing and exporting goods through the Southern route. As a result the economic blockade, Tazama Pipelines to bring in crude oil, TAZARA for haulage, Indeni to process oil and many enterprises were born to hive off dependence on the hostile prone southern route.
Zambian farmers should seize President Lungu’s challenge by stepping up production, enhance quality and devise proper organization and distribution of farm products.
Efforts can be made to form cooperatives to bring peasant farmers in blocks, put resources and products together to supply to the chain stores.
In the quest to improve the quality further what the chain stores and others could do is to help build capacity among small scale farmers by providing training in various resource management and distribution skills if possible even seeds and fertilizers.
South Africa subsidizes their farmers hence the burst of vegetable and fruit exports to Zambia. This country has developed in the agricultural sector quite well that at the stage the nation has reached efforts should have been concentrated on value addition to create more jobs. Sadly because of trade imbalances most farmers do not seem be reaping the rewards they ought to despite the efforts made to boost food production.
For example at the moment there is a cry on how some farmers are already selling maize to briefcase buyers instead of waiting for the Food Reserve Agency (FRA). Authorities should find out why some farmers prefer swindlers to a state grain buying company.
Zambia needs to review policies on manufacturing and agricultural production for the national good. Already there was an announcement that Mulungushi textiles will temporarily open to manufacture masks to enhance the fight against Covid 19.Hopefully the post corona virus outcome should be that Mulungushi Textiles will have diversified into production of other goods to continue full production and provide the much needed employment for the people of Kabwe.
More efforts are badly needed to revive manufacturing as a critical contributor to the economy and above all the country’s GDP. One way is to review the influx of second hand clothes into the country. Does the nation really need them? The political excuse that Salaula provides a livelihood for many people is weak and can no longer hold. If the companies listed above were not closed and continued production those who are in salaula vending would have been either working or surviving on the allied industries that should have emerged alongside vibrant manufacturing outlets.
There is indeed a silver lining in Zambia’s dark cloud, the challenge is on how opportunities will be created to obliterate the temporary darkness and provide the much needed light on the imperative to revitalize the country’s stalled manufacturing sector.
Many Zambians who travelled to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and other SADC countries will recall how popular chitenge material from Mulungushi became among the women folk beyond the country’s borders.