By CHATULA KANGALI and ABGAIL CHIYENI –
THE Zambia Forest and Forestry Corporation (ZAFFICO) has commenced production of treated poles at its newly established pole treatment plant in Kalulushi’s Ichimpe Forest on the Copperbelt Province.
Company secretary Morgan Mukwasa said in an interview that the company had started the treatment of assorted utility poles following completion of the project.
Mr Mukwasa said that the company had not started selling treated poles because they were still accessing the market value of the commodity.
He said that the plant would be treating Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) treated poles as well as creosote-treated poles to be supplied to Zesco Limited and the Rural Electrification Authority (REA).
Meanwhile Mr Mukwasa said that ZAFFICO was in the process of carrying out equipment maintenance to turn around the operations of  the once defunct Kawambwa Tea Company (KTC) in Kawambwa District.
Recently experts from Kenya were invited to assess the viability of KTC.
He said that the Kenyan team that conducted the feasibility study concluded that the company was viable but it needed maintenance.
“After carrying out a feasibility study it was concluded that the tea company can come back, it just needs maintenance and rehabilitation of the infrastructure and the tea estates,” he said.
Mr Mukwasa said that the corporation was currently checking  the prices  of  equipment   that  needs  to  be   replaced before assenting  how much it would  cost to  revamp the entire company.
He said that the corporation was also working on raising and lobbying for capital.
Mr Mukwasa said that the current tea estate  was adequate for optimal tea production.
He said that the company would continue weeding and maintaining the tea plantation with plans of expanding it in future.
Government repossessed KTC  last year from the Zimbabwean Investor, KHUMO Holdings and handed it over to ZAFFICO.