Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) has commended government for reducing duty on the importation of pre-mixes for the stock feed industry in the 2018 national budget.
PAZ Executive Manager Dominic Chanda says the sector has been lobbying for the removal of the duty for the past 8-years.
Mr. Chanda tells Q-News that the sector made submissions through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) trade offers when the Free Trade Area (FTA) was formed, to ensure that duty on stock feed ingredients was removed.
The FTA entails that exports between SADC FTA Member States is duty free for all products except for Malawi, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Mr. Chanda says the move will help reduce the price of stock feed on the Zambian market.
He says as it stands, the average price of starter stock feed is at K188 per 50kg bag while, finisher is averaging at almost K167 per 50kg, which was about K300 a couple of years ago.
Mr Chanda says government’s intervention will now allow for more players to come back into poultry production, and enhance its viability for economic benefit of the nation.