SWAZILAND: Swaziland Minister of Agriculture Moses Vilakati believes that the country is needlessly spending money on agricultural imports of produce that it can produce itself. He stated that the country spends more than E100 million annually importing vegetables and fruits.
The minister said as projections indicated that urbanisation would increase tremendously; it would exert more pressure on food and opportunities for agribusiness. Therefore, there is a need for people to change their mindset to meet the new demands to prevent further capital outflows.
“There will be change in consumption patterns and health standards. For example, there will be increased demand for high value fruits and vegetables,” he said. Urbanisation would also create demand for fast foods, which would in turn create an opportunity for value addition to agricultural products, he noted.
“This can be started at homestead level then grown into a big value chain. This trend will also open up packaging of various products, for example tomato sauce for fast foods,” said Vilakati.
He said there was an array of typical agro processing enterprises that needed to be considered urgently which included bread from sweet potatoes, tomato sauce from tomatoes, dried fruits and juice, and dried vegetables.
He was echoed by the Institute for Global Dialogue Director (IGD) Dr. Siphamandla Zondo who said there was a need for African states to address their ignorance in order to become the global food basket. Africa as a region’s import capital outflows amounts to over E4 000 billion per annum.
“We have been selling raw products to developed countries who then sell us back finished products at a price most of us cannot even afford for so many years to date and we do not see any problem with that,” he said.
