The Zambian Fruit and Vegetable Traders Association says the quality of onion that Zambian farmers are supplying to supermarkets is not substandard, as farmers understand the importance of meeting the set standards when producing crops.
Association President Bernard Sikunyongana said the quality of onion produced in Zambia has improved but admitted that there is more effort needed in order to produce the best quality of onion.
Sikunyongana, whose association buys onion from farmers and offloads it on the market stressed that the onion that local farmers are producing is not so different from the onion that is imported from South Africa but there is room for improvement.
“We are traders, as an association we provide a ready market, when their produce is ready, farmers call us and we buy from them then offload it on the market. Whatever farmers are producing, especially onion, garlic and ginger, we provide a market”, he said.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Sikunyongana mentioned that the country has improved in terms of onion production noting that the country only imported onion for two months before the suspension of onion imports compared to six months of imports in the past.
Sikunyongana has called upon government to assist farmers with onion dryers and set up aggregation centres in areas, which would be identified as having a huge number of farmers producing onion adding that aggregation centres would address the challenge of storage facilities.
“If today a farmer does one hectare, they do not have where to dry it so those storage facilities will be helpful for stocking the onion, we do the grading, stock it and then it’s ready for the market. Those are the areas government needs to work on because that will be the buying point and delivery point for the farmer. We need to polish up on the quality but we are almost there”, he said.
He commended government for maintaining its stance on the issue of onion imports, which will protect farmers adding that this will also encourage farmers to improve the quality of onions they are producing.
Sikunyongana explained that some onion varieties need to be handled using machinery while others can be handled by hand therefore farmers are being advised to grow varieties which are not difficult to handle.
