adminSithandazile Moyo Business Reporter
AGRO-FOCUSED Global Import and Exporting, trading as National Distributors, has engaged small- holder farmers (SHFs) in an effort to promote growth of the agricultural sector.
The company, which is involved in processing, packaging and distribution of fresh vegetable products, is also currently exploring the Zambian market with a view to resume exports.
National Distributors stock controller Ivan Van Eetveldt said the company was working with SHFs to help them increase productivity to ensure food security.
“Local farmers supply all the vegetables that we use for our products and we are happy to be working with them as this improves productivity and promotes growth of the agricultural sector,” he said.
Eetveldt said they had been supporting farmers with inputs like seeds of vegetables that include cucumbers, beetroot and carrots so that they do not struggle to get the appropriate seeds.
“To reduce the burden for farmers, we supply them with seeds of the vegetables that we want so that they reduce production costs as they pay after the vegetables have been sold,” he said.
Eetveldt said they realised that it would be easier to work with local farmers to cut transportation costs thereby reducing production costs.
He said working with local farmers had made it easier for them to meet demand and at the same time providing a readily available market for their produce.
Eetveldt said they were working on ways to expand their market through exports.
“We used to export our products but when the economy started going down we stopped and at the moment we are supplying our products to local supermarkets nationwide. We are, however, working on ways to start exporting and we are already looking at markets like Zambia,” he said.
Eetveldt said sourcing raw materials used in their business remained a challenge as they had to resort to importing packaging from South Africa.
“We have to import all of our packaging material for example glass because we cannot get it locally and that is a disadvantage on its own,” he said.
Eetveldt called on local farmers who have the capacity to supply the factory to come forward and do so.
“As a factory, we want to concentrate on production and distribution but at the moment we cannot do that as we are forced to grow some of the vegetables we use to complement the produce we get from farmers,” he said.
Online Reporter