Bid to export organic skin care products hits snag

Business Reporter
A quest by a group of elderly women and youths in Lupane district to export organic skin care oil products to Dubai and the United Kingdom is being hampered by lack of an export licence.

A representative of Madojwa Enterprise, Mrs Kaiso Donga told Business Chronicle during the inaugural Lupane Business Expo on Monday that they are inundated with inquiries and orders for their range of oil products from Dubai and the United Kingdom.

However, the major drawback according to Mrs Donga is lack of an export permit.

To compound their predicament, they have little knowledge on how to apply for the licence, she said.

“We deal with organic oil, from Mangongo tree nuts which is in abundance locally.

Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe permitted us to pick up nuts in the forest.

“We then crush the nuts to extract oil and manufacture a range of sun screen oil products which are effective in protecting one from sun burns and rejuvenate one’s skin.

It also works on people with albinism.

We also make hair food products from the oil,” said Mrs Donga.

“Our aim is to export the products to Dubai, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

We receive numerous inquiries and orders from people in those countries and we are confident of earning substantial foreign currency.

“But the main challenge is that we do not have an export licence.

To further compound our woes is we have little knowledge on how to secure that licence,” she said.

She added that before Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and through networking on internet, they had secured markets in South Africa, Bulawayo and Harare. “Due to the pandemic we lost the markets and we are currently selling locally in Lupane”.

Madojwa Enterprise has 23 members, comprising four youths and 19 elderly.

They are receiving operational assistance from the Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Ministry.

The ministry which organised the expo in partnership with Zimbabwe Education Fund (ZIMEFU), facilitate Madojwa Enterprise in participating in several exhibitions such as the Lupane Business Expo giving them a platform to network and showcase their products.

The expo which was held under the theme “Promoting business growth through market linkages for sustainable economic development”, ended yesterday.

Officiating at the expo, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, the Minister Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development said the exhibition provided a platform for macro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to connect, benchmark, create and accelerate business ideas in line with the National Development Strategy 1.