AGRO PROCESSING COOPERATIVES TOLD TO PRIORITIZE LOCAL MARKETS

Ministry of Industry and Trade through One village one product OVOP has called on Agro Processing Cooperative Societies to focus on satisfying the local market before aiming at exports.

The advice has come amid reports that the cooperatives mostly plying under the banner One Village One Product rush to supply the foreign market before they attain recommended capacity.

And speaking in an interview OVOP National Coordinator, Kamiah Kaluma Silumba, said it is important for cooperatives to prioritize satisfying local markets before going international.

“The main reason behind OVOP was to empower communities to have a basis on industrialization especially local industries.

“We therefore wish to advise the communities to think within these lines as they implement the program.

“We learnt with dismay that however, most of these Agro Processing Cooperative Societies are focusing on sending their products abroad in the search of better earnings- which by the end of the day it is prospering. Silumba said.

Meanwhile, Kaluma Silumba commissioned the 7.5 Million Kwacha -milk factory at Kampini Agro Processing Cooperative Society Limited in Lilongwe.

However, reports indicate that most of these corporative organizations are fed up with local authorities as it takes years before Malawi Bureau of standards certify their products for market consumption.