Those importing fertilisers, plastic packaging and the polymers to make packaging will now require import licences.
A pair of statutory instruments gazetted yesterday gave effect to the decision by Minister of Industry and Commerce Sekai Nzenza to reimpose controls on the imports of these products. Both amend the regulations concerning the control of goods.
SI185 deletes fertilisers in general and plastic packaging and polymers from the list of goods allowed in under the open general import licence, while SI186 puts onto the schedule of goods requiring an import licence: Urea, Ammonium Nitrate, Compounds and blends, CAN and LAN, and Single Superphosphate, plus the plastic packaging and polymers.
There have been suggestions that some of the fertilisers imported by some private people and businesses might not meet standards or even meet the formula on the packaging label, with a desire that all imports should be of tested products.
More and more imports of fertilisers are now raw materials for local manufacture and blending. – The Herald
