adminLovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
DEPUTY Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Cde Paddy Zhanda has lamented the influx of foreign poultry products especially chickens, a situation which he said is hurting local farmers.
Cde Zhanda who was fielding questions from chiefs at the Zimbabwe Council of Chiefs’ Conference that ended held in Gweru yesterday, said chickens which are mainly coming from Brazil and Argentina are being smuggled into the country.
Government introduced a $1, 50 per kg import duty on meat products to protect the local industry.
This has forced some unscrupulous business people to smuggle the commodity into the country.
“As government we want to promote our local farmers, hence the decision by government to impose a $1,50 import duty on meat products. However, this is failing to benefit our local producers because some chickens are being smuggled into the country and this is affecting our local farmers,” he said.
Cde Zhanda said there is need to tighten the porous borders if the scourge is to be eliminated.
He said smuggling is not affecting the poultry industry alone but other sectors of the economy like the shoe industry which has been rattled by the influx of cheap footwear especially from the Far East.
Local consumers have expressed reservations at the cheap chickens which are being dumped into the country but financial constraints have seen them consuming the genetically modified products.
It takes less than a month from incubation to slaughter a genetically modified bird which greatly reduces the input cost while it takes at least six weeks for an organic chicken to mature locally which makes local poultry products more expensive.
Turning to the issue of subsidies, Cde Zhanda said government is not receiving budgetary support from lending institutions and donors which made it difficult for the state to offer subsidies to farmers.
He said instead, the subsidy government can extend to farmers is to offer competitive producer prices.
The deputy minister also urged farmers to wean themselves from depending on government for inputs arguing that farming was now a business which can be self-sustaining.
Online Reporter