The Industrial Development Corporation – IDC has disclosed that it will invest K17 million (about US$1 million) to revamp the Mununshi Banana Estate in Mwense, Luapula province.
The estate went under shortly after being privatized to a local investor who is said to have had limited experience in management of Agro firms. Zambia currently has a banana deficit estimated at about 11,000 tons per annum which provides immediate advantages for local production.
IDC Chief Executive Officer – CEO Mateyo Kaluba disclosed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that the company is in the process of planting the first 50 hectors of banana’s and has so far directly employed about 40 people who are currently on the ground to execute work.
He said IDC decided to undertake this project due to the country’s serious deficit in Banana production of about 10,800 metric tonnes per annum, hence saw it fit to invest in bananas as part of the corporation’s agriculture portfolio push. Banana being a perennial crop has another advantage in that it takes on average 9 to 12 months from sowing to harvesting.
He added that expected production target per year for the revamp estate is 6,500 tons and that the corporation intends to push the hactares of bananas cultivation to 330 hactares and reach 730 ha in the next 3 years. The revamp Mununshi scheme will also offer an out grower scheme for people in the surrounding areas to enable the company be self-reliant and expand production creating business and employment opportunities for the local community.
“We are also going to take advantage of the export market particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC which is nearby and we are in the process of recruiting a qualified management team for what will now be called the Mununshi Fruit Company that will in the near future, see the company diversify into production of other fruits like Avocados. So, once the company is up and running, the new management team will begin to identify other fruits with high demand for both the local and export markets given that management skill, expertise and infrastructure will already be provided,” He said.
When asked whether the Mununshi Fruit Company will not take away market from existing private banana farmers, Mateyo told ZBT that the corporation will instead compliment what local farmers are already doing for both commercial and small and emerging farmers. The Mununshi Fruit Company will initially focus on plugging the deficit and intends to grow and contribute to making the country become self-suficent and later pursue export markets.
“We intend to export to the DRC especially that it has new entry routes and roads around the area to facilitate foreign trade, we have roads now between Luapula province and the northern Province from Kasama, so we expect that it will open up a serious export market for us and bring in additional foreign exchange,” He added.
