• Government should allow importation of onion to continue until local farmers have dry ones.
• Most white farmers in Mkushi are supplying onion which is not dry and it is getting rotten.
• They are currently supplying poor quality onions compared to what the Association gets from South Africa.

Southern Region Fruits and Vegetables Association has called for continued importation of onion until local farmers are able to meet national demand in view of the current shortage.

Speaking in an interview, Association Secretary, Dorothy Mwanza noted that most white farmers in Mkushi are supplying onion which is not dry and it is getting rotten.

Ms. Mwanza stated that government should allow importation of the commodity to continue until local farmers have dry ones because they are currently supplying poor quality onions compared to what the Association gets from South Africa.

“We are importing onions and we are part of the stakeholders that decide when to open and when to close because of the inflow of the onions. We have these local farmers as the government keeps on emphasizing to say we should buy local.”

“The situation at the moment is like the white farmers are saying now they are having onions from the fields but from the look of things, the onion that is coming out of the fields now is not dry, they are bringing it fresh. Like yesterday we had a truck that came from Mkushi, they brought onion which was not dry and it is getting rotten. So the person who bought that onion has returned it to the white farmer in Mkushi,” Ms. Mwanza explained.

She encouraged the farmers to be using onion dryers so as not to compromise the quality of the product.

“So right now we are saying, let the importation of onions continue until local farmers have dry onions in farms then we will be able to buy from them. At the moment, farmers are getting onion from the field which is not dry, it is like they are forcing us to buy poor quality onion compared to the one that we have from South Africa.”

“So the farmers should be using dryers because quality of the product also matters. When they have dry onion, we make sure our members go to the farms to buy that onion until it finishes. When it finishes that is when we lobby to the government to say can you allow us to import,” she added.

Recently, Zambia Fruits and Vegetables Association as well as Onions, Potatoes and Allied Products Association imported approximately 308 tonnes of onions, bringing the cumulative total of imports in March 2024 to about 1, 258 tonnes against the monthly target of 3, 500 tonnes.