ZAFFICO Invests $25 Million in Particle Board Factory

The Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) has begun work on the country's first particle board factory, a project valued at around 25 million U.S. dollars.

ZAFFICO Board Chairperson Dr Alvert Ng'andu said Zambia currently has no local producer of particle boards, which are widely used in ceiling boards and furniture. As a result, the boards are imported and remain costly for consumers and manufacturers alike.

Dr Ng'andu revealed that the corporation has already committed about 18 million U.S. dollars to the contractor handling the design, production and installation of the plant. Once the facility is up and running, he said, locally made particle boards will become significantly cheaper, easing reliance on imports and lowering costs across the construction and furniture sectors.

Speaking to ZNBC News in Kalulushi after touring the corporation's sawmill, Dr Ng'andu described the investment as part of ZAFFICO's wider strategy to extract maximum value from its biological assets, the trees under its management.

He explained that the factory forms a key pillar of the company's diversification agenda, which is centred on transforming raw biological assets into finished, high-value products rather than exporting or selling them in their basic form.

The project is expected to create jobs, strengthen local manufacturing and support Zambia's broader push towards value addition and industrialisation, positioning ZAFFICO as a growing player in the country's timber and wood-products industry.