Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Margaret Mwanakatwe has disclosed that 4,000 individual farmers,250 SMEs and 180 producer organisations will be supported at the of the Zambia Agribusiness and Trade Project (ZATP) which will be officially launched tomorrow.
Speaking at a pre-launch press briefing, Ms. Mwanakatwe says that the ZATP project is a five year project by her Ministry through the World Bank aimed at supporting inclusive growth in Market Linkages and firm growth in agribusiness.
She says this will be done through market linkages in agribusinesses and strengthening of the regulatory and institutional framework for agribusiness and trade.
Ms Mwanakatwe says the main project beneficiaries are the poor, emerging famers and growth oriented small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
She says this will enable SMEs and farmers supply their products to larger buyers at the quality, quantity and consistency they need.
She adds that for the farmers, the project will channel support through organized farmers groups and will adopt the productive alliance model which has worked in other parts of the world.
Ms. Mwanakatwe says the project in this regard will be targeted at ensuring that the regulatory frameworks serve legitimate purposes and do not unnecessarily burden enterprises or increase the cost of doing business.
She says this will help in facilitating market assessments to identify competition issues in agribusiness and trade.