ZAMBIA’S K5BN CHARCOAL INDUSTRY

A FEW weeks ago, I was hosted on a live Hot FM radio station Break Fast Show dubbed the “The Hot Seat.”  The show is a one and half hours of answering red hot questions from well informed presenters and callers.

In dealing with one question regarding the impact of the energy sector on our quest for a Green Economy, I alluded to the charcoal trade supply chain and its worth. Many people do not know how much the charcoal industry is worth in Zambia.

According to a 2017 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report titled “Greening Zambia’s charcoal business for improved livelihood and forest management through strong producer groups,” the charcoal industry is worth K5 billion or approximately 2.0 percent of the country’s GDP.

This industry employs approximately 41, 000 people directly while a further 45, 500 are employed in charcoal-related activities.

The charcoal industry has been in existence since time immemorial and shall continue to live on for a long time to come unless fundamental interventions are implemented.

Other studies indicate that at least 80 percent of charcoal produced in rural areas is consumed in urban areas while the rest is consumed in peri-urban and rural areas. This includes Zambia as well.

This is because the demand for charcoal is mainly in urban areas. More often than not, rural households use a combination of firewood and charcoal. 

Charcoal business is lucrative not just in Zambia but elsewhere as well including Brazil. In Kenya, studies indicate that the charcoal industry employs about 200, 000 people in production alone and is worth 32 billion Kenyan Shillings. The charcoal supply value chain is composed of producers, brokers, transporters, dealers and retailers.

Reports indicate that charcoal exports from East Africa though banned are estimated at $360 million per year. The export market includes Middle East Asia.

Despite being so lucrative and in some cases loosely referred to as Black Gold in some markets, the charcoal industry has not been recognised and formalised to plan for it properly. 

Despite its significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP), charcoal business has been kept out of the formal economy. Its importance is not well understood and appreciated yet it’s a K5bn industry.

It cannot be underplayed that the charcoal supply chain in its current format is a major threat to forests and biodiversity. It’s a high carbon foot print industry and poses significant health risks yet almost all of us have either used it or continues to depend on it. Not only is it a danger to biodiversity but the production process is also very inefficient.

Charcoal production is undertaken in a number of ways. The most basic method is putting a bundle of wood on the ground and burning the wood partially.

The other method is digging a hole and putting the wood in the hole and then covering the hole with soil. This is called a pit kiln.

The other notable one is putting a bundle of wood on the ground and putting the soil all over the wood to control air flow.

The current methods of producing charcoal are very inefficient as the charcoal recovery rate is between 10 to 20 percent meaning that as high as 80 percent is lost to gasses and ash.

Efficiencies vary considerably but generally the process is a low efficient and low productivity one depending on climatic conditions, moisture content, type of wood, type of kiln and the diameter of the wood among other factors. Believe me, there are hundreds of charcoal making kilns in Zambia. This is a multi-billion industry.

With the establishment of a Green Economy and Environment Ministry, the charcoal industry is one such industry which will require effective engagement if we are going to win the decarbonisation war.

The nexus of this war will be around fossil fuel which includes diesel, heavy fuel oil, petrol, kerosene, firewood and coal.

There are some quick wins; yet it is a journey worth embarking on because the greening agenda is not just a global one but is crucial to the wellbeing and modernity of humanity.

The greening agenda must be a SADC agenda and an AU agenda.

Because the majority of households depend on charcoal for cooking and keeping warm, and because charcoal business provides thousands of jobs and revenue to various industry players apart from producers, our team at the new ministry will require all of our support even as they engage stakeholders in migrating households to alternative forms of energy.

It will not just be about alternative energy but also introducing more efficient means of charcoal production in the meantime as the current charcoal kilns are horribly inefficient with a charcoal recovery rate ranging between 10 to 20 percent.

It will also involve promoting better energy saving cooking braziers.

*Johnstone Chikwanda is an energy expert and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Zambia, a PhD candidate at Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.