An agricultural services company, AFGRI Zambia, has embarked on the process to reduce the number of depots they operate for storage around country, attributing this to the poor financial performance of the agricultural sector in Zambia.
AFGRI Country Manager-Zambia Albre Badenhorst says the downscaling will unfortunately result in job losses.
He says the process of reducing the number of depots will continue as certain identified sites are emptied.
Mr. Badenhorst says it is, however, envisaged that other sites will remain open for the foreseeable future.
“In future trading will also only be executed on a mandate and back-to-back basis. The downscaling of the trading operations and the closing of a number of depots will unfortunately result in employment losses,” Mr. Badenhorst said.
This is in a communique availed to the Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) in Lusaka.
He also says as regards AFGRI Leasing Services, providing finance to primary producers, the company is simply not able to secure the correct level of funding required to support local farmers in line with their growth expectations going forward, and accordingly will discontinue operations as of the end of February 2019.
“Our Equipment division is being transferred to a separate legal entity styled AFGRI Equipment Zambia Limited which will bring the structure in line with other countries AFGRI operates in. The operations of the Equipment business (John Deere and other brands) will however not be impacted at all and both our Lusaka and Mkushi branches, and Mpongwe parts depot, remain fully operational,” Mr. Badenhorst said.
He also said ABBA, the company’s community farming operation as well as CMI International, who manage collateralised commodities on behalf of financial institutions, are not affected by the restructuring process.
He said unfortunately, the above process of restructuring their operations has given rise to a number of resignations, but AFGRI would like to assure their clients that contingency plans are already in place to ensure that suitable replacements are sourced swiftly.