Vision

Our vision is to be a pioneer in the oil extraction industry that will set the tone to a paradigm shift in the way people perceive soya beans and sunflower. By extracting oil, we will add value to the fruit. We see ourselves becoming a household name within three years of our anniversary

PITCH

Extraction of edible oil from the most wasted raw materials of Sunflower and soyabean in the community

There is a growing interest of people to engage in agriculture but they often don’t have Skill or knowledge to engage. Many agricultural products are grown and are sold as raw, there is no values addition. Most or the sunflower and soyabeans go to waste due to non-availability of the market especially, sunflower. Since we have the Skill, the willingness to get dirty and utilize the land and we also have invested in knowledge over years, then we can make use of this to be able to pull resources to provide the value addition.

My project is about Agri-Business (extraction of edible oil from Sunflower and soyabean) in Kasama Northern province of Zambia. The type of business will have two sectors in it. Farming to produce the raw materials needed for the making of production. Many people especially women and girls are the victims in this hunger and poverty pandemic that led to early marriages, highly dropout of school and prostitution. Now the plan is that the business will work with Ministry of agriculture to identify women cooperatives who will be given market or contacts to grow sunflower and soyabeans to sell it the company. At the farm, the organization has twenty hectors of land which will be used to grow sunflower, and Soya Beans as additional row materials for oil extraction.

• Edible cooking oil extraction business is a lucrative business because the product is used daily in homes for cooking and baking purpose. Many people would like to enter into this business but the start-up capital is just too high especially the cost of machines. In the region we do not have companies producing cooking oil, there are all imported from Lusaka and Kitwe. however, Graste Enterprise has come up with the idea of establishing one in the region.

• Within Zambia, there are few firms that specialize in the extraction of edible oils. This is a mature market, and the predicted future rate of growth is predicted to equal that of the common economic system. The requirement for this product has continued to remain powerful despite the economic system.

· The government in its 7^th National Development Plan and Zambia Vison 2030, the government is putting the promotion of agriculture is a first priority. This has made the agriculture to receive some tax exemption especially on purchases of fixed assets.

· He said locally produced oil could enable Government to cut back on crude oil imports which currently stand at over US$70 million annually. He said it was important to increase the availability of stock feed, if additional employment was to be created. Mr Chibumba said the demand for edible oils in Zambia was huge and would continue to grow as the country developed. He said programmes for the introduction of structured edible oil markets would support the smallholder farmers to improve their farming efficiency and access to markets. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/11/16/zambia-imports-70m-of-cooking-oil-annually/

· Zambia consumes about 120,000 tons of cooking oil but only produces 30-50 percent of the total supply, with more than half of Zambia's edible oil consumption imported from the Far East and South Africa. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-07/05/c_137301855.htm

· https://www.znfu.org.zm/content/edible-oil-national-consumption-study