Alpha Commodities has refuted claims that the Company has already secured a fertilizer supply deal from government stating that the Company has only been shortlisted.
The Company has revealed that it currently has about 30, 000 metric tonnes of fertilizer in its depots with more shipment at the port of Beira in Mozambique waiting for onward transportation to the country.
This has raised questions as some people have argued that a Company cannot stock so much fertilizer without an assured market therefore the Company is already assured of a market from government through the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Company Operations Manager Miyanda Ndeleki however said from inception, the company looks at the market requirement for Zambia when stocking fertilizer and not the market from government through tenders.
Ndeleki explained that currently,the Company doesn’t have a contract from government as it was just shortlisted as one of the Companies that would be awarded contracts to supply farming inputs to farmers under the FISP programme but government has not finalised the list yet.
“We know the market requirement for the country, the market requirement is over 500, 000 metric tonnes for the country so the 100, 000 metric tonnes is just a drop in the ocean. We are not assured of a market, if you look at this fertilizer, its been coming in the country from February. We have been in operation since 2017, that was under the previous government, we were not getting government contracts but we would move in stock in the same model. This is how we have operated from the time of our inception”, he said.
He mentioned that the Company is ready to deliver fertilizer to the farmers in the 2022/2023 agricultural season as the Company has stock all year round.
