24 Apr 2023

Some tourism operators in the hospitality industry have called on government to consider revisiting the import restriction policy as it is negatively affecting their businesses.

While appreciating that the purpose of the import ban was to cushion local horticulture farmers against relatively cheaper imports, they said the current situation was bad as they experienced shortage of some vegetables hence they urged government to revisit the ban.

Operators expressed their comments following a presentation by the minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao who appraised them on the long term restrictions on importation of selected vegetables.

The decision, they said was taken without first capacitating farmers to meet demand, noting that some vegetables were seasonal and the ban had affected some of the cuisine offered. 

They appealed to government to at least allow some importation of some vegetables to close the gap.

Customer satisfaction, they said, was very important in the hospitality industry and as such they had to ensure customers’ needs were met to keep the business afloat. 

Operators noted that customers were paying attention to the service they received from restaurants to hotels.

“One of the key factor in keeping guests engaged and coming is to deliver on your promise from being consistent to making sure they get the same awesome service,” said one of the operators who preferred to remain anonymous.

Some operators also called on the relevant authority to consider relocating the scanning machine at Francistown airport to Maun airport as it was the busiest as compared to Francistown. 

They said the scanning machine at Maun was not functional and their customers were not comfortable being searched physically.

Earlier, minister, Mr Molao informed the gathering that the restriction on selected vegetables was done in good faith noting that government was not putting a policy that was anti-business or one that would to stifle business.

The ban, he said aimed to allow the horticulture industry to develop and become competitive in the wake of ever increasing trade liberalisation. 

The policy intervention, he said was expected to run for over two years in line with Vision 2036 pillar one of sustainable economic development and Reset Agenda priority number 4 which calls for value chain development.

“Through the policy we wanted to carry everybody along because we viewed agriculture as an enterprise which can uplift livelihoods and create sustainable jobs and get people out of poverty. 

This policy is a response to the needs of the people as they wanted to venture into business space,” he added. However, Mr Molao the ban would be reviewed for possible uplifting noting that for the past 12 months, they had been tracking the industry and the people had been responding through initiatives in place.

He assured the gathering that they would review the process before the two year lapses and engage further with other stakeholders on whether to sustain restriction or uplift it. 

Appraising them on current status, he said generally there had been an increase in total production of restricted crops, except in tomatoes. The percentage of local production for tomato since the ban (9 months), he said, had not increased because tomato was a warm season crop. 

He said given the sensitivity of the crop that farmers normally did not experience better harvest during the cold season because 99 per cent of tomato producers did open field production.

Mr Molao said the increase was anticipated during the warm season towards the end of the year.  The gathering also learnt that the annual demand for horticulture crops was 112 000 metric tonnes whilst local production was 73 000 metric tonnes and the deficit was met by imports.

The minister called on the tourism players to play their role in assisting farmers to organize themselves and produce products of the quality they desired. 

 The industry, he said, could also consider designing some schemes to assist farmers to fulfill government goal of food security. ENDS