Moving Zambia Food Processing to the Future
As a Zimbabwean national, I have had a lifelong interaction with Zambia. Up till the period just before Zambia’s independence, our countries, together with Malawi were considered to be one nation. Zambia has always been a source of hope, succor, and for me personally a sort of a home away from home because of the inevitable shared history. Visiting Lusaka for the first time since before Covid (my last Zambia trip was to Chipata from the Malawi side a year ago) was an absolute treat.
I found myself reflecting and being thankful to Zambia and its people for providing shelter and succor to many of my own relatives who spent two decades in this country during our war of independence. Zambians have also tolerated their smaller and noisy neighbor (Zimbabwe) even when Zimbabwe thought they were better than their seniors! They have taught us the difference between building a country and building a nation (One Zambia, One Nation!)
For PFS, Zambia has provided the inspiration for great beginnings as PFS Country No1. On this trip I have seen all these elements of this great country and people in full display!
At PFS we have been privileged to work with many talented Zambian entrepreneurs. All the companies we visited were able to demonstrate how we continue to contribute to helping them open doors of opportunity, grow their businesses, serve their customers better and become themselves creators of opportunity to producers across this country, whose major asset is accessed to land to produce many food ingredients. It was exciting to even see this generational work in full display as the companies also opened up opportunities for young talent across a number of disciplines.
Our engagements with Java Foods, COMACO, Natures Nectar, Forest Fruits, and Forest Africa were really encouraging. The array of products, quality management systems, absorption of apprentices, the thousands of rural producers, and consumers connected to their supply chains was a great validation of PFS’s model. These companies exemplified what scalability, innovation, resilience, longevity and sheer entrepreneurial zeal can accomplish with the right kind and quality of support. Our colleague Daniel has done an excellent job in building solid relationships with the teams, nurturing the ecosystem, and positioning himself as a trusted advisor. The best story was at Forest Fruits, who obtained their FSSC 22000 certification at one shot, the Bureau Veritas assessor was concerned that his report will be too thin on non-compliances!
One of the key takeaways from our engagements with the ecosystem partners was that we need to support the tertiary institutions to encourage young people to take up a career in the various aspects of food technology. The University of Zambia is struggling to attract students into the food technology course, and this is creating a shortage of skills in the industry. The CEO Cohort event, my first since I joined, was a great example of the value ecosystem partners and our client CEOs derive from such facilitations. Our convening power was in full display and the call for more such events was clear and unmistakable.
This year, Zambia celebrates 60 years since its independence. This means that a child born in 1964, is now an elderly person, readying themselves for retirement. However, in the more than 10 years I have personally been working within the Zambian context, I have seen a country that is not ready to retire. Instead, Zambia always leads the way in reinventing itself. I am convinced that this resilience and capacity for reinvention is a credit to the indefatigable spirit of Zambia’s biggest assets - its people.
Tiyende Pamodzi Ndim'tima Umo” (Let us have one heart and one spirit)