Zambia’s leading potato producer, Buya Bamba has been accused of controlling the Zambian Potato market by limiting access to their outgrower program and its seed to a few select large scale farmers at the expense of local small scale farmers who can enable the country meet its national potato demand.
Zambia Seed Company Limited (ZAMSEED) Company Director of Research Dr. Bhola Verma has revealed that Buya Bamba Limited has continued to maintain a monopoly on potatoes by only providing seed potatoes to farmers who are willing to sell their produce back to the company.
Verma said the company normally provides seed potatoes to large-scale farmers who it later buys all the potatoes from in order to keep having control of the market, which is unfortunate for small-scale farmers, as they are not supported.
Verma further said the discriminatory approach that the company uses to maintain the monopoly, unfortunately, neglects small-scale local farmers who would want to venture into growing potatoes.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Verma said ZAMSEED used to produce seed potatoes about five years ago but the company could not break even due to lack of adequate facilities.
When Zamseed used to produce potato seeds, two thirds of the seed potatoes that were produced was sold but the rest were spoilt and wasted, a situation the company could not handle and therefore decided to let more specialized companies handle the production.
He further said the biggest challenge that the company had was not having enough cold rooms because producing seed potatoes requires proper infrastructure and unfortunately, the situation with storage facilities has not changed until now.
He noted that the company has a farm, appropriate structures and other basic requirements but unfortunately, cold rooms are the biggest challenge adding that the rest can easily be acquired.
He also said people with the right facilities and expertise can produce seed potatoes as it is not a difficult thing to do, but requires investment in cold rooms and other key requirements.
Verma mentioned that producing seed potatoes is a specialized craft and it is very important to have proper storage facilities if one is to venture into it.
Zambia has recently experienced increase in prices of commodities that include Potatoes. This has led to consumers questioning why even locally produced goods and Agro produce has also followed suits with prices increasing by over 50% within a year.
An analysis of the potatoes market has revealed that there are limited local producers on the market leading to monopolistic tendencies by the few large scale producers. Local farmers who make the largest numbers and account for the highest production volumes are not actively engaged in the current Potato out-grower programs.
