16 Feb 2023

Members of Parliament have heard that no study had been done to determine the degree to which imposition of restriction on importation of vegetables has influenced the country’s balances of trade.

Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday, Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi explained that the purpose of the import restriction was to stimulate the current state of horticultural production in the country with reference to 16 vegetables.

“There is no immediate plan to add other food products in the basket of already restricted commodities and the intention has been to review the import restriction of the 16 vegetables over a two-year period.

We just completed the first 12 months,” he said.

He added that the 12-month period was too short to determine the impact of the import ban on the country’s import bill, thus the impact would be assessed after vegetable imposition period of two years.

Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Mr Oabile Regoeng had wanted to know the degree to which the imposition of restriction on importation of vegetables had to date influenced the country’s balance of trade.

MP Regoeng also wanted to know if there was any immediate plan to add other food products in the basket of already restricted commodities and how significant the restriction had impacted on the food import bill. ENDS