The market price of groundnuts has doubled from K4 per kilogram (kg) to K8.5 per kg between 2019 and 2020. This is according to COMACO, one of the key outgrower and active buyer of groundnuts in Zambia.
Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) confirmed that Zambia is self-sufficient when it comes to groundnuts production and has a lot of potential to export excess produce to its neighboring countries.
COMACO said there is a high demand for groundnuts due to many local peanut butter processing companies that have been set up as well as demand from the neighboring countries, adding that its outgrower farmers produced 35,000 metric tonnes last year.
COMACO Monitoring and Evaluation Manager Edward Zulu told ZBT that the market price for groundnuts increased to K8.5 per kg in the 2019/2020 farming season, up from the K4 per kg in the 2018/2019 farming season.
This increase was on the back of the high demand for groundnuts because of reduced production as well the Covid-19 induced demands as many areas needed to buy adequate food products to stock up due to uncertainty.
Zulu told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the production of groundnuts in the last farming season was relatively low due to erratic rainfall and the rosette disease, adding that some farmers experienced challenges on how to deal with the erratic rainfall and rosette disease.
He said these challenges can be addressed by increasing extension work and improving seed variety and breeds in order to have seed that can withstand drought spells and the local diseases.
Zulu added that increasing seed access and quality through seed multiplication,
increased training facilities, especially web based training and reporting can help increase production.
Zulu noted that despite the challenges that were faced by the farmers, 2020 was a year of growth for COMACO as it extended its work from its core area of Luangwa Valley to communities around Kafue National Park and to reach new markets, new infrastructure, processing lines and staff to grow the It’s Wild food brand was added.
The production of groundnuts in the 2019/2020 farming season had reduced compared to the production in the 2018/2019 farming season. According to official statistics made available to the Zambian Business Times-ZBT by the Zambia Statistics Agency-Zamstats, the production of groundnuts in the 2019/2020 farming season was 130,825 metric tonnes, down from 127,172 metric tonnes produced in the 2018/2019 farming season.
