Alpha Commodities has confirmed that it supplied fertilizer to the government in the 2020/2021 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme-FISP but however declined to give any details on the pricing.
Speaking to the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, an employee from the company confirmed supplying fertilizer to the government but could not confirm the quantities or at what price the fertilizer was supplied. Efforts to get more information on the matter proved futile by press time as official phone contacts for the companies directors were not reacheable.
President Hakainde Hichilema during a briefing revealed that his predecessor [Edgar Lungu’s] government were buying fertilizer at US$1,200 per ton from its contracted suppliers at the time when the commodity was selling between US$400-US$450 on the international market.
“When the fertilizer world prices were US$400-US$450 per ton,our colleagues deliberately,consciously were buying fertilizer using taxpayer’s money at US$1,200 per ton,you multiply that by 300,000 metric tonnes”, President Hichilema said.
Nyimba Investments and Neria Investments, two of the five companies that were involved in the supply of fertilizer in the 2020/2021 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme-FISP all denied supplying fertilizer to government at US$1,200. They all stated that their prices were all below $1,100 per ton. Neria went on to confirm that their prices were the lowest and way below the $1,200 per ton price.
Nyimba Investments which supplied 103,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer in the 2020/2021 farming season said the company supplied fertilizer at a price below US$1,100 per ton. Neria Investments also noted that the company was supplying fertilizer to government at a price below US$1,000 per ton in the 2020/2021 farming season.
