Zambia has both wheat and maize bran deficit

THE Agricultural Consultative Forum (ACF) says Zambia has a deficit of both wheat and maize bran of about 104,247 metric tonnes due to high demand from the local market.
ACF says the national bran requirement for beef, poultry, and piggery and dairy industries is estimated at 29,306 metric tonnes per month, which translates into 351,675 annually.
Beef sector requires the highest chunk of 239,424, poultry at 84,000 and a combined total of over 28,000 for piggery and dairy, according to the ACF policy brief.
According to the ACF policy brief, the bran requirements per sector are dairy (4,059), poultry (84,000), beef (239,424) and piggery (24,192).
“The bran required per annum was estimated to be 351,675 metric tonnes while the current national bran supply in the formal supply chain was estimated at 247,428 metric tonnes per annum when the operational capacity for mills was at an average of 82 percent.The difference between supply and demand gives an annual deficit of 104,247 metric tonnes of bran on the market.
With evidence brought by this study, it can be concluded that there is a deficit in the amount of bran available on the market due to high quantity demanded for the commodity than supplied,” ACF says.
It says there is need for formulation of profound strategies which can be applied in the marketing of bran to address local and intentional demand.
ACF says some of strategies that can be applied in the marketing of bran are regulatory measures on the amount of exported bran with reference to the amount of bran demanded locally.
It also says there is need to carry out periodic check-ups on the amount of bran available and the amount demanded to make decisions which are backed up by the prevailing market situation.
About 27,871 metric tonnes of maize bran and 3,429 metric tonnes of wheat bran were exported between January and June, 2012 and this was before the export ban was effected.
“During the period of the study, it was observed that most of the millers/processors had no excess bran to supply and some of them could not even meet the local demand from farmers. Out of the 36 millers visited, less than seven millers had excess bran,”ACF says.
The forum says from the findings in its policy brief, the milling capacity for maize in the country was estimated at 1,280,160 metric tonnes per annum at 100 percent operational capacity while that of wheat mills was at 249,600 metrics tonnes per annum at 100 percent operational capacity.