Government Considering Expansion Of Export Market To DRC

Government is considering options of expanding Zambia’s export markets to other regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo other than Lubumbashi.

Luapula Province Minister Mr. Chilangwa who led a delegation of Ministers and technocrats on a bilateral engagement with the DRC in Kinshasa says there is also need to exploit a yawning market of Zambian goods and products in Kinshasa instead of just focusing on Lubumbashi.

ZANIS reports that the Minister said this when he, Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Vincent Mwale and Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Minister Raphael Nakachinda toured one of Kinshasa’s city market one the most popular supermarkets.

Mr. Chilangwa says the tour of the supermarket was aimed at sampling the pricing structure of goods and products that Zambia produces for exports.

He is however shocked that despite the DRC being one of Zambia’s largest consumer markets there is no single Zambians product on the shelves in the sampled supermarkets in Kinshasa.

The Minister said the delegation will be escalating the proposal to consider airfreight services for the shipment of goods directly to Kinshasa adding that the mode is being used between Lubumbashi and the capital city.

“My colleagues (Ministers Vincent Mwale and Raphael Nakachinda) and I came here (City Market) to sample the prices of various goods and products. For example would you believe that a kilogram of goat meat is about USD25 while a pack of tomatoes is about USD18. The goods are priced in such a way that you can’t resist this trading opportunity. This is interesting. We have all those agricultural products that we can introduce to Kinshasa,” said Mr. Chilangwa.

“What is surprising is that despite the goods stocked here being from all over the world, there is no single product from Zambia. We have sugar, rice, enough beef, goat meat, mealie meal and many more and there are about 13 million people in Kinshasa alone who want to eat. Let’s not just focus on Lubumbashi; we can trade with Kinshasa too,” he said.

And Mr. Mwale said the construction of the Kasomeno Mwenda toll road and Luapula Bridge will be an enabler of more trade between Zambia and the DRC as both small scale and large scale industries will have more access to the market by road.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nakachinda is satisfied with initial negotiations on the possibilities of establishing the Luapula River Authority.

Mr. Nakachinda said the Luapula River Authority will help in the prudent management of the Luapula River resource.

He has described the trip to DRC as successful.

This article originally appeared on Lusaka Times