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The Rhodesia Herald,
December 10, 1960
WORK on the new Metal Box Company factory in Bulawayo will begin within the next few weeks.
The cost of the factory buildings and plant will approach £400 000.
Announcing this today, a spokesman for the company said that when the factory goes into production in November next year, it would save the country hundreds of thousands of pounds by producing food cans locally.
At present the meat, vegetable and fruit packing industries in the Federation imported tins from South Africa and Tanganyika each year.
The factory, which is being built on a 13-acre site near Dunlop’s, will have a floor space of 38 000 square feet and be able to produce some 30 000 000 cans a year. The building had been designed to leave ample room for expansion, and he emphasised that the Metal Box Company, which has its headquarters in Britain and branches throughout the world had every confidence in the future of the federation. Although production of tin was on the up and up in Rhodesia, it was not yet great enough to make the establishment of a tinplate processing plant a practical proposition.
“In actual fact, at the moment the Federation is exporting tin to be processed in Cape Town and Dar es Salaam and then re-importing it”.
Another company, Metal Containers (Pvt), Ltd, which has recently opened a factory in Salisbury, has an option on another site near Dunlop’s.
The acting manager for the Federation, MP Collins, said today that the company would wait and see before committing itself to building a factory in Bulawayo. He explained that the Metal Box Company and Metal Containers were not in competition. His company produced the big stuff — steel drums and pails, while Metal Box went in for jam tins and so on.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
- Canning is the most efficient food preservation method used on meat, fruits and vegetables.
- The canning of fruits and vegetables is a growing, competitive industry, especially the international export portion.
- The industry is made up of establishments primarily engaged in canning fruits, vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices; processing ketchup and other tomato sauces; and producing natural and imitation preserves, jams, and jellies.
- The primary objective of food processing is the preservation of perishable foods in a stable form that can be stored and shipped to distant markets during all months of the year.
- Local food production invest in canning infrastructure, for their food preservation for local and export markets.
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