Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu and Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporters
BULAWAYO companies should be innovative and map concrete strategies to accelerate domestic production to realise quick recovery from the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube, said yesterday.
As local and international supply chains continue to bear the brunt of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic disruption, embracing technology and enterprise remodeling is gaining momentum.
Bulawayo businesses have also been affected, resulting in some scaling down operations while others still struggle to secure critical raw materials. Speaking yesterday during a tour of the Zimbabwe Grain Bag Private Limited in Bulawayo, Minister Ncube said companies must learn from their Covid-19 experiences and use these to build resilience strategies.
“All sectors have felt the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the manufacturing sector hasn’t been spared. A number of companies closed, which has affected us economically as a country,” she said. “Now that we are able to work around Covid-19 we need to come up with some innovative strategies to accelerate production.”
Minister Ncube urged business leaders to strike a balance between building their capacities and keeping the Covid-19 risks at bay. She applauded the Zimbabwe Grain Bag performing well despite Covid-19 challenges. Minister Ncube said companies should work closely with the Government and feel free to make recommendations for policy reviews and initiatives that maximise production.
“I’m aware that Zimbabwe Grain Bag used to employ up to 350 workers but because of Covid-19, it’s operating with 250 workers. Come next year we would want to review the capacity here,” she said.
Company managing director, Mr Cavin Nkiwane, said the business was having challenges in procuring raw materials as they receive funds late from the auction system. He said the markets has now been infiltrated by cheap imports, which affect demand for their produce. “The tender system is unfavourable.
We need it to be localised so that it favours local companies instead of being done internationally,” he said. “We can’t compete with imports as they outprice us. There is need for Government to impose heavy duties on imports to curtail the import of manufactures products as that is killing our market.”
Mr Nkiwane, however, said they were working on scaling up production capacity. He explained that demand for their bags spikes towards the end of the year as this is the time when agro-industries need bags to package maize seed, fertiliser among other products.
Sales and distribution manager, Mr Professor Sibanda, said they mainly get their material for producing the grain bags from South Africa and were making about 1,5 million bags a month against a capacity of four million bags. Mr Sibanda said due to the effects of the pandemic they had to scale down operations to remain with only two shifts instead of three. “Our production rate has dropped during the Covid-19 era.
We are now operating with two shifts instead of three shifts. If the other shift is introduced, we could go back to producing four million bags a month, which gives us 120 tonnes of bags,” he said. The company supplies mining sector, millers, retail shops, fertiliser and seed industry, as well as sugar companies with a few exports to South Africa.
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