Maputo — The Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture and the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA) intend to save at least 800 million dollars per year in imports in order to improve the country's agricultural trade balance.
According to Jaime Chissico, National Director for the Promotion of Family Farming, cited by the independent newsheet "Carta de Moçambique', the measure aims at allowing the country to reduce the large suns spent on importing foodstuffs.
"According to our agricultural trade balance, the country spends 1.4 billion dollars a year on food imports. However, of this amount, we realize that products valued at 800 million USD can be produced locally. Just to give you an example, we spend around 350 million USD on rice imports, 102 million USD on maize, 45 million USD on chicken and 250 million USD a year on beans. All these products can be produced domestically', he said.
Chissico called for new measures to impose greater control on the import and export of agricultural products.
"In order to implement the measures, the Ministry counts on the support of the private sector', he said. "We have the impression that they agree with the measures the government intends to implement'.
For his turn, the representative of the CTA, João Munguambe, said that, during the implementation of new measures the government must guarantee that the contact between the businesses and the raw material suppliers is not affected by duplicate inspections.
"However, we recognize that it is important to know who is doing what throughout the value chain. It is the government's role to control, so that industries can act in accordance with established rules,' said Munguambe.
He also said that the CTA will continue to analyze the government document to find out how the private sector can contribute to preventing and eliminating contraband, as well as better identifying producers and importers.
"We're going to continue working, at CTA level, with various other partners until we find a position that comforts us as investors or industry so that we don't get affected', he said.
