Sweet Potato Importation Ban Irks Traders

Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Tuesday July 4, 2017 16:24

 

The restriction addressed to traders of fruit and vegetables dated May 29 stated: “This office has decided to restrict the importation of sweet potatoes because the district has enough production to meet the supply in the North East and surrounding areas”.

The letter continues, “The sweet potatoes production is enough to initiate the restriction of sweet potatoes in the import permit with effect from May 29.”

 The traders, mostly women, recently poured out their frustrations.

One such trader, Banoti Mbulawa was clearly incensed by the North East Regional Agriculture office’s move to ban the importation of sweet potatoes.

Mbulawa said that the restriction is both a setback and an own-goal to people who have heard the government’s call to employ themselves.

With pain clearly showing on her face, Mbulawa said the embargo is unwarranted and should be lifted forthwith. She said the ban is meant to collapse their small businesses and ‘nothing else’.

“We could have understood if the ban was imposed due to a disease outbreak in Zambia, but that is not the case.

The letter from the agriculture office gave us contact details of farmers in the district where we can buy sweet potatoes from.  The farmers are our competitors but we don’t have a problem with that since they also have a right to sell their produce anywhere in Botswana,” Mbulawa said.

Their problem, Mbulawa said, is that customers buy from the producers who sell their products in bulk at lower prices than the sellers.

This situation, Mbulawa said, has made them lose business as people buy from producers as compared to in the past when they used to buy their produce from Zambia.

“The producer is selling sweet potatoes using the wholesale price of P10 per bag and as traders we sell the same bag at P25, which is very unfair and costly to our customers,” she said.

She said the traders’ efforts to discuss the lifting of the ban with agriculture officers were of no use since the officers told them that they were within the law to impose an embargo once there is enough supply in the region.

However, Mbulawa said that contrary to what they were told by agriculture officers, it is not true that the embargo was countrywide because traders from other places like Tonota and Palapye continue to buy their produce from Zambia.

Mbulawa’s words were echoed by her fellow traders, Sitholiwe Ntesang and Kene Majeremane.

Ntesang sees no sense in imposing the ban.

She said the move to will impoverish them since they depend on the money they get from importing sweet potatoes from Zambia to support their families.

Ntesang said that what angers them is the fact that they were only told of the embargo when they went to the agriculture offices to apply for permits to import sweet potatoes from Zambia.

She added that they were thrown from pillar to post when they enquired why the embargo was imposed.

“The reasons we were given are not convincing,” said a worried Ntesang. She said that to make matters worse the agriculture officers lifted the embargo on June 19, 2017, which later changed again for no apparent reasons.

Ntesang said due to the confusion made by the officers they then demanded  to see the North East District Agriculture coordinator, Nkaigwa Joel.

She revealed that during the meeting with Joel he took a decision to lift the ban for a week, but later received another letter, which called for the ban of importation of sweet potatoes in all regions of the country.

Majeremane, another concerned trader said that her family depends on the profits made from selling sweet potatoes.

She said that if the government does not lift the embargo on the importation of  sweet potatoes there are higher chances for her business and families living in poverty due to shortage of employment in the country.

“Already most of us have lost money to the Zambian farmers  after making deposits for them to harvest the sweet potatoes,” she said.

Majeremane stated that because they did not abide by the agreement with Zambian producers, they will not be compensated.

When reached for  clarification on the matter, Joel denied some of the  allegations made by the traders.

He said that they banned the importation of sweet potatoes so that traders can support local farmers.

Joel stated that traders are allowed to purchase sweet potatoes at Ditladi Farms.

“It is normal, if we have products regionally we close the borders for the importation of the same goods.  Borders are currently  closed for all regions across the country for bringing in sweet potatoes,” he said.

Joel said that borders would be opened if the product is unavailable in the country.

As government officials have been taking a cue from the President reminding people that it is impossible for all to find employment in the public and private sectors, some feel this is a defeat towards self-reliance for the traders who heeded the advice to find other ways of earning a living.

Further the traders view the ban as a slap on the face for those trying to find other means of surviving outside the formal economic system.

Though government encourages those able-bodied to create employment opportunities for themselves and not depend on the various government poverty eradication schemes, the traders feel the ban has reneged on plans for citizens to also empower themselves.

Before the ban they bought their sweet potatoes from Zambia in bulk where they say it is cheaper and are happy with the profit margins that they generate from their sales. They said that buying sweet potatoes in Botswana is unprofitable unlike buying from Zambia, which is hundreds of kilometres away.