During a farm visit on Friday, Honorable Lucky Mulusa, Special Assistant to the President for Policy, Projects and Monitoring, congratulated Amatheon Agri Zambia for its significant contribution to the nation’s social and economic growth.
“One of the things that we are impressed with is your vote of confidence in our economy. Your mere production of crops here adds to economic growth and beyond that, you are achieving sustainable development because you are empowering the local people here by making sure that they own the means of contribution towards the country’s economic growth,” Honorable Mulusa said.
The State House delegation was eager to hear challenges being faced by the company.
“We have listened to your challenges and we should be able to join hands and see how we can resolve the challenges you have highlighted such as the Civil Aviation license. I cannot see any entity with this kind of investment that can operate without the use of an airplane.”
Amatheon Agri’s Outgrower Programme, which delivers access to market, knowledge and financing opportunities to around 10,000 small-scale farmers, was further introduced to the delegation as part of the company’s inclusive growth strategy. During the presentation, Mr. Troy Minne, Managing Director, stated:
“We see exponential growth of crops being made available to us by our Outgrowers. We have been very impressed with the number of farmers that come on stream now that we have opened up a new market to farmers to access inputs but also to supply grain to us. The growth in the delivery of grain has been much better than initially anticipated.”
Before the delegation took off in a helicopter of the Zambian Air Force, Mr. Mulusa encouraged Amatheon Agri Zambia to roll out its operations into other provinces which are well suited for agricultural production and economic development. Since 2012, Amatheon Agri has invested over US$70 million in Zambia’s agriculture and food industries.