23/11/2025
Why should you grow sweet potatoes this season? Because there is now a ready and reliable market for sweet potato unlike in the past. Sweet potato farmers, we have reached the promised land!
Major Investment in Sweet Potato Processing
The Kandolo Catalyst: How Zambia's New Starch Plant is Turning Sweet Potatoes and Maize into Economic Growth
A significant transformation is underway in Zambia's agricultural sector with the commissioning of a major glucose and starch manufacturing plant in the Lusaka Multi-Facility Economic Zone. The USD 110 million facility, developed by the Trade Kings Group with support from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and international financial partners, represents a strategic pivot toward crop diversification and value addition. Under the leadership of Group CEO Mr. Abdool Latif Ebrahim, the project marks a crucial step in leveraging Zambia's agricultural potential by creating formal markets for starch-rich crops, particularly recognizing sweet potato's superior starch yield per hectare compared to traditional commodities.
The venture is strategically positioned to capitalize on the complementary advantages of both maize and sweet potato cultivation. The investment consortium brings together significant private sector expertise from Trade Kings Group, development financing from international partners, and strategic oversight from government institutions, creating a robust foundation for sustainable growth. While maize provides an established production base, sweet potato offers exceptional drought resilience, shorter growing cycles, and higher starch extraction rates. This dual-crop approach ensures consistent annual processing capacity while promoting agricultural diversification.
The establishment of this industrial-scale processing capacity is set to fundamentally reshape Zambia's sweet potato market dynamics. Under the strategic direction of the investment team, the project will transition sweet potato from a predominantly subsistence and local market crop to a structured commercial commodity with guaranteed off-take agreements. This transformation will create price stability, reduce post-harvest losses through organized aggregation systems, and incentivize farmers to expand cultivation areas and adopt improved varieties. The guaranteed market will particularly benefit smallholder farmers who constitute the majority of sweet potato growers in Zambia.
The socio-economic implications of this integrated processing model are substantial and wide-reaching. For farming communities, the creation of stable markets for both crops transforms agricultural practices, enabling more reliable income streams and reducing dependency on single crop systems. The inclusion of sweet potato specifically benefits smallholder farmers through its lower input requirements and adaptability to various growing conditions. On a national scale, this venture supports crucial import substitution goals while creating employment opportunities across the agricultural value chain. The project represents a practical manifestation of Zambia's industrial development strategy, demonstrating how strategic investment in agro-processing can stimulate rural economic development and contribute to sustainable economic growth.
