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Business Writer
Bulawayo-based company, Alpha-Print, is in the process of procuring a US$45 000 labelling paper-making machine, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.
It is envisaged that this will see the country saving millions in foreign currency.
Due to the absence of such capital equipment, the manufacturing sector is spending significant amounts of dollars annually importing paper to label various locally produced products.
In an interview after the tour of Alpha Print by Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi last Thursday, the company’s senior representative, Saymore Dube, said the state-of-the art equipment was expected in the country later this year.
“We intend to manufacture the paper for making labels. It’s called the semi-gloss paper. Currently, nobody is producing that paper locally,” he told the deputy minister.
“As a country, we are importing that paper from countries such as South Africa and China and you know the imports come with a lot of challenges in terms of forex and time.
“So, we have already deposited that machine in China.”
Dube said they were using internal resources to finance the acquisition of the latest investment and were optimistic of positive gains going forward.
“Currently, even here in Bulawayo nobody is selling the semi-gloss paper. We are importing the paper from South Africa or China, if you really sell enough to take a container,” he said.
“There is one agent for a South African company who is in Harare and when we are desperate, we buy from the local supplier. But he is expensive compared to going directly to South Africa.”
Company director, Nicodemus Dlamini, said although they were procuring new machinery, it was not easy to finance the retooling initiatives through banks. To facilitate access to forex for the productive sectors, the Government introduced the weekly Foreign Currency Auction Trading System where large firms and Small and Medium Enterprises can participate.
According to official figures from RBZ, the number of bids at the auction system have improved to 500 valued at US$40 million from less than 100 bids valued at US$11 million at the beginning of the forex auction platform.
Dlamini said his organisation was yet to participate at the auction floor to raise the foreign currency it requires to finance their retooling initiative for RBZ to acquit before the machine comes,” he said.
Dlamini said the machinery they were trying to bring into the country would go a long way in cutting down the cost of raw materials and products.
Federation of Master Printers of Zimbabwe chairman, Ben Ntini, who accompanied Deputy Minister Modi during the tour of the companies, advised Alpha Print to start working towards tapping into foreign markets that have opened up following the liberalisation of trade under the AfCFTA.
“We used to be the number one exporter to Zambia if you recall, so I am saying as you are bringing in the new machinery, start exploring Africa, your competition can’t be Zimbabwe.
“You are investing in this investment and we don’t want to hear that you have been crushed out of the market, so think around broadening your market,” he said.
Ntini said given that the United Kingdom (UK) has exited the European Union market, some companies from that country were likely to do toll-manufacturing in Zimbabwe and widen their niche into the broader AfCTFA market. This, he said, was embedded on the fact that the British understood very well the Zimbabwe landscape as the country was once a British colony.
It is hoped that enterprises from all economic sectors could reap trading benefits and grow their businesses under AfCFTA. The scaling-up of intra-Africa trade would also be a game changer that will transform the continent’s economy.
Bongani Ndlovu