Maputo — Marracuene (Mozambique), 21 Apr (AIM) - Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi launched on Wednesday the 2022/2023 agricultural marketing campaign in the district of Marracuene, about 30 kilometres north of Maputo.
The marketing target for this year is slightly more than 17 million tonnes of assorted crops. 21 per cent of this figure should be grain, with root crops accounting for 45 per cent, vegetables 13 per cent, pulses 11 per cent, oilseeds four per cent, and miscellaneous other crops 20 per cent.
Nyusi urged that the present marketing campaign should bring immediate results in generating income for rural households, and in improving the well-being of Mozambicans, as fundamental objectives of his governance.
He reaffirmed the government's commitment to promote industrialisation as a factor that stimulates the expansion of agricultural production.
This would involve "continuing the reforms that are under way to attract investment, alongside building infrastructures in the rural areas, particularly roads and electrification".
Nyusi urged all those involved in marketing to make use of this Thursday's visit by Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera, in order to internationalise Mozambican economic activities.
Chakwera, he said, will visit the installations in Marracuene of the Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM), where he will address Mozambican businesspeople. "There's a lot that Malawi produces, but above all there is a great deal that it needs, and it's not difficult to take business to Malawi. Let's internationalise our economic activities. You will see the impact of internationalisation".
For his part, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, said that, when speaking of the chain of agricultural marketing, the government is referring to the whole range of operational and market activities from the place of production, through harvesting, processing, storage and distribution until reaching the final consumer.
"The efficiency of this process requires improving activities at each stage in the chain so that the final product reaches the consumer within acceptable standards, and with the necessary quality", he said.
Moreno added that it also requires permanent dialogue with the other stakeholders in marketing, including the stallholder farmers themselves, the transporters, storage and ago-processing units, industrialists, regulators and decision makers.
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Nyusi also challenged Mozambican farmers to boost the production of onions and potatoes in order to improve the country's balance of trade. He said that Mozambique is continuing to import potatoes that have been rejected by other countries.
"Let's produce potatoes seriously, here in (the adjoining district of) Moamba", he urged his audience. There were plenty of opportunities to grow potatoes, not only in Maputo province, but in Niassa, in the far north and in the central province of Tete.
"Let's not humiliate ourselves by importing goods that we can grow here perfectly well", he urged.
Statistics quoted by Nyusi show that in 2020, Mozambique exported agricultural produce valued at 604.2 million dollars, but agricultural imports into Mozambique were over 50 per cent higher, at 998.5 million dollars.
"This means that we recorded a negative trade balance in agriculture of over 394 million dollars", he stressed. And among the products contributing to the negative balanced were onions and potatoes.
"In 2020 we imported onions valued at 15.8 million dollars, and in 2021 these imports increased to 19.4 million dollars", said Nyusi. The picture was similar when it came to potatoes. Potato imports amounted to 18.8 million dollars in 2020, rising to 21.8 million dollars in 2021.
Increased local production of onions and potatoes could thus make a significant difference to the Mozambican balance of trade, argued Nyusi.
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