Crushers and Edible Oil Refiners Association (CEDORA) has attributed the 12% increase in export earnings to the ban lift on the export of oil cake and other solid residues of sunflower seeds, which accounted for 19% of the increase.
The Zambia Statistics Agency reported a 12% increase in export earnings from agricultural products, reaching K2.4 billion in August 2024, up from K2.1 billion in July of the same year.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times, Dr. Aubrey Chibumba, Director of the Crushers and Edible Oil Refiners Association (CEDORA), revealed that the Ministry of Agriculture had allowed the resumption of the export of sunflower cake, soya cake, and cotton cake, following the decline in demand.
“As a result, there is now a limited quota for the export of these protein cakes every month, leading to a noticeable surge in their export. He highlighted the impact of factors such as load shedding on the local demand for stock feed.”
He explained that the decline in demand was a result of the inability to rear birds due to the challenges posed by load shedding, leading to a decrease in the demand for soya cake and stock feed.
“In April we were stopped from exporting any cake due to the droughts because the country was not sure about whether we had enough cake for stock feed production.” He said.
“You can imagine if you are keeping day old chicks and then there is no electricity and then those day old chicks are going to die, same applies to restaurant owners and you order hundred chickens per week because of no electricity you cannot keep those hundred chickens so you start ordering on a day by day basis , but again on a day by day basis your supplier also their costs are going to go up if they have to be distributing on a day by day basis, so the whole cost structure in the value chain has gone up so high that it has made it difficult for people to actually rear birds making the demand for soya cake and stock feed to go down.” He explained.
Chibumba further stated that due to the demand going down the Ministry of Agriculture allowed them to export, making them to resume export of sunflower cake, soya cake and Cotton cake.
“So all the protein cakes currently, we have a limited quarter that we can export every month so that’s why you will start seeing jumps in experts of those commodities.” He said.
