Market Access, Trade and Enabling Policies Project (MATEP) Quarterly Report #14

The project aims to raise Zambia's exports from $405 million to $600 million over the course of the project. To achieve this objective, MATEP focuses on value chains offering the greatest potential for growth, as well as for impact on Zambia's economy and population. MATEP has five closely interlinked components to achieve its export objective: Market Access, Trade and Enabling Policy, Tourism, Finance, and HIV/AIDS. The Market Access component focuses on identifying foreign markets into which Zambia can sell and on working with exporters to successfully complete transactions in those markets. MATEP targets both regional markets and more distant markets in Europe, America, and Asia for Zambia's exports. During the quarter, MATEP was deeply involved in strengthening the groundnut and white bean value chains. The project worked with producer organizations to promote new varieties of groundnuts and beans, which are in demand from buyers. MATEP also supported the establishment of the Groundnut Industry Association of Zambia and the holding of their first Annual General Meeting. In the honey value chain, MATEP worked with the honey industry to improve market access for honey produced in Western Province and is looking at Organic and Fair Trade certification within that supply chain. Regional trade activities resulted in a successful trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by senior executives of Zambian companies interested in establishing a trading presence in that country. The trip, which had been preceded by a survey and production of guidelines for registering businesses in the DRC, resulted in a decision by Zamseed to move ahead with the process of registering their business in DRC. Zamseed also had successful meetings with senior officials from the DRC's Provincial Ministry of Agriculture, which resulted in clarifying issues surrounding a previous order of 150mt of seed by the Ministry from Zamseed. In addition, MATEP had meetings with food processors in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the supply of white bean seed, bean commercial crop, groundnuts, peanut butter, and honey. The meetings with Nutresco and Olivine Industries are for the supply of over 1,000mt of produce valued at over $780,000. A local company also expressed interest in procuring bottled honey from Ubuchi Enterprises, a MATEP client, to be marketed under an in-house brand in Zimbabwe. MATEP also responded to an enquiry for bulk peanut butter from a large South African-based supplier. The project's support for the groundnut and white bean value chains led to the establishment of a common marketing strategy for white beans and groundnuts for 2010. MATEP assisted a honey processing client obtain financing of $256,000. Total credit disbursements from the MATEP Investment Fund now stand at $3,311,547, including lending from MATEP directly and loans originated by MATEP and financed out of ZATAC resources. In the HIV/AIDS component, MATEP continued with the implementation of the HIV/AIDS prevention program through District Business Associations (DBAs) of the Zambia Council of Small and Medium Business Associations (ZCSMBA). The project is working with six DBAs in Eastern Province and Mazabuka DBA in Southern Province. All awareness educators have been trained and are deeply into the roll-out stage of delivering prevention messages to association members and surrounding communities. So far, a total of almost 15,000 have received prevention messages through this program out of a total of 120,000 expected direct beneficiaries. MATEP also made preparations for expanding the ZCSMBA program to additional DBAs in Eastern and Central Province.