ZAM wants more shelf space

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 09:50:43 +0000

By MAILESI BANDA

ZAMBIA Association of Manufactures (ZAM) will continue to engage government and chain stores to ensure that local manufacturers are able to supply their products.

ZAM president Rosetta Chabala said it was important that the members that had the capacity to consistently supply the chain stores be given the opportunity to do so.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, she said they had been engaging chain store owners to improve shelf space for locally produced goods.

Ms. Chabala revealed that they were working on a project that would help in the building of capacity for small scale manufacturers to supply the chain stores.

“Zambia has in the recent past seen an increment in the number of supply chain stores and these stores provide an important market for the local manufacturers. As ZAM we have been working with the government and the chain stores to ensure that the local manufacturers are able supply them their products,“ she said.

She said the decision by the government to introduce the  five percent surtax on imported products as a way of protecting the local manufacturing industry was negatively affecting the sector.

She explained that while the surtax was an intervention aimed at promoting local value addition, it had unfortunately led to a list of products being affected by the   surtax, including inputs and products not manufactured locally.

She said the surtax eventually affected the local producers as it led to an increase in the cost of production. She added that ZAM would engage the Ministry of Finance in the 2018 budget to address the anomaly.