Namibia: Fresh produce market better protected
The country's green schemes previously suffered from a lack of regulations to protect local fresh produce from competition by cheaper imports.
However, the managing director of the agricultural business development company Agribusdev, Petrus Uugwanga, says that under the regulations the local market is now shielded against competition from cheap mass produced fruit and vegetables from South Africa, thereby bolstering domestic consumption.
Agribusdev is a Section 21 company.
Uugwanga said that since the regulations were enforced last year by the Agro Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA), there has been no oversupply of produce as experienced in the past, when vegetables ended up rotting in warehouses because there was no market.
Uugwanga explained that the regulations compel businesses to buy from local producers rather than import from other countries. Before the regulations, tonnes of vegetables produced at the Uvhungu-Vhungu green scheme in Kavango East went to waste due to lack of storage facilities and a limited market.
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