Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) has expanded its plantations footprint to four more provinces in Zambia to met the growing demand for timber and other wood products.
The Corporation which recently become a public company by listing on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) says its listing has significantly improved the profile for the corporation and enhanced its ability to raise capital in future.
ZAFFICO Public Relations Manager Ireen Lungu said that the company had embarked on an expansion programme, adding that it has set up more plantations in four more provinces of Zambia.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Lungu said the corporation has established plantations in Northern, Muchinga, North-Western and Luapula Provinces.
Lungu said expansion into new areas requires capital injection as it involves investing not just in human resource to manage the plantations, but also in procurement of equipment and all the auxiliary materials that go with the planting, seedling and managing of the young trees.
“Originally ZAFFICO was just on the Copperbelt, but we are now in five provinces of the country and we have established plantations in Kalumbila, Lupososhi, Shiwang’andu, Kawambwa and Nakonde among others”, she said.
Lungu also said that the company has been replanting exotic trees within it’s areas and plantations on the Copperbelt. She noted that the roundwood stocks on the Copperbelt plantation have not been able to keep up with the demand, which keeps increasing.
It is because of this increasing demand that the corporation is currently unable to meet, that is the main reason the company decided to expand. The quality of our wood products is very good, so demand keeps increasing, she told ZBT.
She added that when the trees are ready for harvest in the next few years, the corporation might be able to meet the national demand for roundwood. The ZAFFICO PR Manager further said the high demand for roundwood in the country is because of the economic activities happening in other sectors of the economy such as construction.
She also mentioned that the corporation’s long term plan of setting up plantations in all the ten provinces still stands adding that this involves many factors including the acquisition of land for planting and mobilizing additional financial resources.
Lungu said the growth of ZAFFICO as a public limited company is good for the country because wherever they set up, other than employing people to manage the plantations, they support and help with the growth of other sectors of the economy as well.
She said some of the company’s operations require recruiting seasonal workers, so the communities around plantations have also been benefiting from the company’s growth as they are employing more people than before.
She stressed that the significant benefit to be derived from being listed on LuSE is that the corporation has an additional option to raise funding which in turn would be used to make the expansion programme possible.
Zambia has good soils, normal to above normal rainfall patterns (especially in the Northern parts of the country) and vast amounts of arable land that could make the country an Agro-forestry powerhouse and net exporter of timber and wood products.
