2013-11-19Mathias Haufiku RUNDU - Trading at the newly built N$100 million National Fresh Produce Business Hub in Rundu started yesterday, as government continues in its quest to stimulate agricultural production, marketing and value addition. President Hifikepunye Pohamba officially opened the National Fresh Produce Business Hub earlier this year. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Lempy Lucas officially opened the trading floors yesterday and urged local farmers to vigorously increase production and the marketing of local fresh produce through the hubs. Lucas also launched a marketing and trading policy during the occassion. “These hubs are very important in that they present marketing avenues for producers to market their fresh produce for formal and informal sectors to source fresh produce. The hubs will also contribute to quality products, transparent trading systems, transfer of skills to local people in the processing and value addition facilities,” said the deputy minister. She said local farmers have been denied the opportunity to participate in the mainstream fresh produce market for too long. She assured traders and producers that the fresh produce hubs would serve as centralized marketing facilities. On his part the Governor of the two Kavango regions, Ambassador Samuel Mbambo, was concerned over the fact that retailers would rather buy fresh produce from wholesalers rather than from local producers. “Retailers in Namibia find it extremely convenient to order all their fruit and vegetables from wholesalers, because they can supply them with a complete range of horticultural products, thus providing for the needs of consumers,” said the governor. He pointed out that buying from local producers with a limited range of products and unreliable supply is inconvenient. “Local producers find it difficult to comply with the three main factors important in horticultural marketing, namely quantity, quality and continuity,” he said. He further noted that production in Namibia is fragmented, because production centres are located far away from each other and are also located far from the main markets. “The fragmentation has a detrimental effect on production,” said Mbambo. He said in the absence of a well-planned, well-managed and organized market structure, Namibian horticultural producers will always struggle to increase market share, adding that this will lead to little or no increase in production. “Government intends increasing the local production and marketing of fruits, vegetables and other horticultural products. The ultimate aim is to replace most of the imported products with in-house production,” he said. At the moment it is estimated that local producers supply only 30 percent of fresh produce consumed locally and the remaining 70 percent is sourced from outside the country. In an attempt to source local agricultural products, government last year decided retailers of fruits, vegetables and other crop products must purchase 39 percent of their stock from local farmers under the market share promotion policy. By Mathias Haufiku 2013-11-19Mathias Haufiku
