21 Mar 2024

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has appreciated the role played by the European Union (EU) and its support on the Selebi Phikwe Citrus (SPC) project.

“Your Excellency Petra Pereyra, the EU Ambassador to Botswana and SADC region, I am thankful for your unwavering support for this project and all the efforts that you put forth to ensure that Botswana gains access to the EU market,” President Masisi said when speaking at the SPC first harvest ceremony at Mannaesi Farm yesterday.

He appreciated financial support to build capacity of staff on compliance issues by the EU and for assisting the country to draft export procedures to ensure a passage way for local fruits from Botswana to sea ports in South Africa as well as cooling and cold storages.

The President said the EU further engaged professionals from Citrus Research International (CRI)  based in South Africa to walk the Ministry of Agriculture through the market access requirements and scientific guidance on mitigation measures.

“I highly appreciate the support given to Botswana by the CRI in providing guidance and working as a team with government to secure markets, conducting surveillance and testing for diseases to certify our farms in order to establish pest free areas in the country, which are very critical in market access,” he said.

While the EU market had already been secured and confirmed to receive all cultivars of fresh citrus fruits, with other five protocol markets that included the USA, China, Vietnam, South Korea and Philippines still on negotiations, President Masisi urged his government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, to conclude on the remaining protocol markets.

Botswana is also looking into exporting fresh citrus fruits to 21 permit markets around the world including Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, South Africa.

He also appreciated other heads of diplomatic missions in Botswana that continued to assist the country to gain access to their respective market as well as leadership and people of SPEDU region for welcoming the investors and supporting the citrus project.

“It is my belief that this project further provides credence to our commitment to revitalise the SPEDU region and secure the future of the town, post the lifespan of mining activities,” he added.

President Masisi said such peer-support approach, if adopted and implemented well, had the potential to further collective aspirations towards a more sustainable and commercially viable agricultural sector, aimed at attaining food security and dignity for the nation.

Selebi Phikwe Citrus is expected to produce about 9 000 tonnes of fruit this year, with an exponential production growth annually and trees expected to reach their full production at the age of 16 years.

This, President Masisi said, would significantly increase supply capacity to both local and global markets yearly, including the export of patented pedigree fresh citrus fruits.

Further, he said in the quest to grow the economy, government had put in place various programmes to facilitate, among others, capacity building and funding of businesses, particularly the Chema Chema Fund that had been introduced to facilitate the informal sector.

Therefore, he urged small farmers to establish themselves within pockets of businesses that would arise from increased production of SPC, especially in the aspect of agro-processing to turn the citrus products into various household commodities of daily requirements, such as sauces, beverages and yoghurt.

“I therefore urge Batswana to utilise the fund for opportunities in the citrus value chain. To facilitate this, SPC has been granted permission to sell 25 per cent of total citrus produce to the local market,” he said.

He indicated that in 2022, Botswana imported a total of 5 773 tonnes of citrus, mainly oranges, mandarin, clementine, grapefruit, pomelos and lemons. 

Therefore, he said SPC would go a long way in reducing the citrus import bill while other activities worth exploring included honey production of over 89 tonnes expected to be done from the citrus farm. He further said government continued to advocate for technological research as a basis for a highly innovative and knowledge-based economy and thus implored those leading the SPC to use their global grower partners and quality assurance accreditation reach to ensure that knowledge and environmental sustainability traits were passed onto many in the industry and beyond. 

The President further commended several stakeholders that contributed to the success of the citrus project, especially Mmadinare Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society for the decision to lease 1 500 hectares of land to SPC.

“This should serve as an example of how communal associations such as co-operatives can work with investors in an inclusive development agenda,” he said.

He also thanked the business support institutions created by government for the pivotal role they played to ensure that Botswana attracted quality investors and delivered the best investor after-care services. “The roles played by the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Entrepreneurship and their parastatals need not be over emphasised. They played a huge role to ensure that Botswana negotiates necessary market access protocols. This is the beginning of the journey as I expect the display of the same zeal as we rope more citrus companies on board to take advantage of the more than 25 markets that we are looking at opening,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Masisi implored Batswana to embrace the Mindset Change transformation agenda and do everything possible to achieve the ideals of the national Vision 2036, which had agriculture and food production as one of its core values on the basis of the sector’s potential for high economic growth. Ends