• CEDORA has a five year objective of increasing soya bean production to about 1 million tonnes a year.
• The Association also wants to increase cotton seed production to about 500, 000 metric tonnes and sunflower 500, 000 metric tonnes per year.
• Government has not paid attention to the relevance of the Edible Oil sector.

Crushers and Edible Oil Refiners Association of Zambia (CEDORA) says it has a five year objective of increasing soya bean production from 400 metric tonnes to about 1 million metric tonnes a year in order to reduce importation of the product.
Association President Aubrey Chibumba told Money FM News in an interview that the Association also targets to increase Cotton seed production from 29, 000 to about 500, 000 metric tonnes, and sun flower to 500, 000 metric tonnes.
Mr. Chibumba however stated that even if the Association meets its target, the country will still be about 85 percent self-reliant in terms of edible oil production due to lack of availability of seed at the moment, representing 15 percent deficit.
“To reduce importation, we as an Association have a five year objective of increasing soya bean production to about 1 million tonnes a year, and then also the other oil crops that come from cotton seed, we also have a target of increasing that to about 500, 000 metric tonnes and sunflower, we also want to increase that to 500, 000 metric tonnes production per year.”
“We moved from 400 to a million metric tonnes for soya beans, on cotton we moved from 29, 000 to 500, 000, but if we do all that, we are only going to be about 85 percent self-reliant in terms of edible oil production, due to lack of availability of seed at the moment,” Mr. Chibumba said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chibumba said the Association feels government has not paid attention to the relevance of the Edible oil sector with regards to crop diversification for the country to become a regional oil exporter.
“We as an Association feel that government perhaps does not understand the opportunity and the relevance of the Edible oil sector in terms of crop diversification, in terms of the available opportunities for us to become a significant regional oil exporter, they haven’t really paid attention to that, if they had, perhaps they would have continued with zero rating the edible sector on Value Added Tax (VAT),” he added.