ZNFU

ZNFU has advised Government not to remove production subsidies as it will negatively affect production by the small scale farmers. The Unions position is that government cannot afford to reduce FISP or indeed wean off farmers from FISP without an alternative institutional framework to support small scale farmers country wide. The Union also does not support subsidies on consumption thus it supports government position to remove subsidies on mealie meal.
The Union has further stated that the proposal for farmers to barter their crop for fertiliser is rather unattainable due to the fact that farmers use maize incomes to meet other spending needs other than fertiliser, and that spending decisions should not be decided by the government. ZNFU would like to urge government to expedite implementation of the Agriculture Marketing Act to smoothen crop marketing.

The improved standard of living in Zambia has to a larger extent contributed to high consumption of proteins and other calories. Given the in-elasticity of beef supply in the country, the Union has received information that there is a shortage of choice beef in the country and this problem has surfaced early in the year as in the past it has been acute towards the festive season. This has led to uncontrolled beef and beef product imports from neighboring countries surfacing.
Beef producers considered this issue on the 23rd May 2013 at a meeting held at the ZNFU offices and resolved that solutions need to be found for processors that may be short of choice beef to supply the market to avoid uncontrolled imports and to sustain the livestock sector. At the same meeting, imports of 1000 live steers was agreed under strict veterinary and domestic price conditions subject to reviewing the situation during the first week of August 2013 to ascertain the extent of the problem