Government to continue supporting cooperatives
The government has said it will continue supporting cooperatives in the country because of the numerous benefits that are associated with such groups which include better bargaining power and scales of production.
Speaking on Monday during a visit to Mapanga Honey Cooperative at Mendulo in Mulanje, Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwanamvekha said cooperatives produce more and better products compared to sole producers.
“Cooperatives create employment, wealth and foreign exchange after exporting the products. We have a lot of work to do to empower locals in terms of production, value addition and market access. We are prepared to take the challenges head on. Some of the issues are taken care by the National Export Strategy (NES),” said Mwanamvekha.
The minister pointed out that there is potential to export but the country should do more to exploit such opportunities.
One Village One Product (Ovop) national coordinator Kamia Sulumba said the minister’s visit to the cooperative shows the government’s seriousness and interest in cooperatives.
She pointed out that Ovop works as a facilitator for the cooperatives to meet their needs in quality and standards.
“We facilitate training including bookkeeping, marketing. We also link cooperatives with relevant organisations in cases where Ovop does not have the relevant skills especially in food production and certification,” said Sulumba.
According to Sulumba, the cooperative experiences capacity and working capital shortages, started exporting honey to Japan in 2012 and sells some locally.
Speaking during the visit a member of the cooperative executive Joseph Nakoma said the group was registered in 2008 and apart from producing honey also makes fruit juice and jam from mangoes, and pineapples.
Nakoma, however, asked for more capital and training in food production.
However, earlier Sulumba was quoted in The Nation as having said that although they are currently experiencing problems in developing small and medium enterprises and reducing poverty they hope they are still at the learning stage.
