adminIn an interview, he said food imports were just meant to supplement supplies on the local market but some businesses were disregarding quotas allocated in their import licences.
“Potato producers for example, cannot supply the whole country adequately, which is the reason why we gave licences to some business people to import the product.
“People are generally dishonest, if you give somebody a licence to import one metric tonne of potatoes, they end up importing three tonnes hence flooding imported products on the market,” he said.
He said the ministry was worried about the flooding of foreign agricultural produce as it was pulling the agricultural sector down.
“The ministry, other players and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority are trying to address the situation by endorsing strict measures at the border posts as a way of managing the situation.
“We will try to do all we can to help the agricultural sector get back to its bread basket of Africa status,” he said.
Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Charles Taffs said the issue of imported potatoes or wheat was not directly affecting them as farmers were not producing enough to feed the country.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Moyo said output this season was likely to be affected by the prolonged dry spell.
“This farming season is characterised by late rains and confusion as farmers were not sure when to plant thereby delaying to plant.”
He said his ministry was aware of the financial hiccups that farmers were faced with which prompted them to create the loan scheme meant for farmers to pay after harvesting.
“We do understand that farmers are going through a difficult time to finance their operations so that scheme is meant to enable farmers to buy inputs and fertiliser as the Grain Marketing Board is cash-strapped to pay them on time,” he said.
Online Reporter