Successful import substitution policy elicits 28pc drop in oil seed imports

BENEFITS from Government’s import substitution drive are beginning to show with oil seed grain and product imports recording a 28 percent decline courtesy of increased soya bean and seed cotton production last year on the backdrop of softening of prices on the international market.

Statistics availed by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) show that oil seed grain and product imports declined from US$377 993 715 in the first ten months of 2022 against US$271 252 179 this year. In volume terms it dropped five percent from 260 881 159 to 248 679 384 kilogrammes.

The average import cost price also declined 25 percent from US$1, 45 to US$1, 09 per kilogramme.

Among the products under the oil seed grain and products imports are cooking oil, oil seed cake/meal, oil seed grains, vegetable and animal fats and margarine.

The country has since saved US$106 741 536 thanks to this development.

Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe chairman, Mr Busisa Moyo, recently said the joint effect of increased soya bean and seed cotton production in the past season coupled with lower international prices on crude oil had resulted in the country saving a lot of foreign currency in oil seed and crude oil imports.

“We had a better soya bean season last year where close to 100 000 tonnes were produced. Essentially, 75 000 tonnes of soya beans translate to 15 000 tonnes of crude oil, which is 10 percent of our annual requirements from soya alone. Sunflower and cotton could account for another 5 000 tonnes of crude oil,” he said.

Mr Moyo said the value of the locally produced crude oil was around US$26 million.

“We have also seen a drop (softening) of global crude soya bean oil prices of about 30 percent from US$2 000 per tonne in 2021 when the Russia-Ukraine conflict began to the current prices of between US$1 300 and US$1 400 per tonne. This reduces the amount we have to outlay for import of soft edible oils,” Mr Moyo added.

Our outlook is that crude oil will remain at current levels or drop only slightly if harvests improve in Argentina and Brazil the two major producers of soya bean oils, he said.

He said members of his association were set to increase soya bean production this coming season. He, however, added that he was not privy to the hectarage, though United Refineries Limited (URL) will increase its area by 100 percent from last season’s 5 000 to 10 000 hectares.

From the 2023 marketing season’s total harvest of 100 000 tonnes of soya bean and 90 084 tonnes of seed cotton, about 30 000 tonnes of crude oil can be extracted leaving the country needing to import 110 000 tonnes of crude oil for cooking oil sufficiency.

Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) executive administrator Dr Reneth Mano recently said the stockfeed industry uses between 10 000 and 15 000 tonnes of wheat or maize bran per month.

“Both the maize and wheat milling industries are not operating at their normal capacity. Thus, there is a pressing shortage of bran, which is now beginning to affect domestic production of stockfeed to satisfy the rising demand from the poultry industry. The stockfeed industry is presently engaging Government for immediate lifting of import quota for wheat and maize bran and soya bean meal in order to stabilise domestic production of feeds and prices of broiler and pork meat,” he said.

Dr Mano said though the import quarters were designed with good intentions to ensure that stockfeed manufacturers prioritise utilisation of locally produced industrial by-products from wheat, maize and soybean milling industries.

Speaking at last year’s second edition of the World Cotton Day, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said Government had designated cotton and sunflower as key policy crops that had the power to transform rural communities for agricultural growth leading to rural industrialisation and development for attainment of Vision 2030 objective. For the 2023/24 agriculture season, Government has set soya bean production on 60 000 hectares with sunflower at 160 000 while cotton will be on 270 000. The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) has this year added some oil expressing companies such as Cangrow in cotton contracting to cut imports of raw materials.