Ethanol plant set to be operational

days with a production capacity of 40 million litres of fuel expected by December this year.
The project is a joint venture between Government through Agriculture Rural Development Authority (ARDA) and a private company – Green Fuel Private Limited.
In an interview last Tuesday, ARDA chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza, said the required equipment to finish the plant had arrived in the country from Brazil.
“We hope that the ethanol plant will be operational in the next 60 days or less. All the equipment that we needed to complete the whole plant is now in the country.
“The equipment includes cane cutters and big tractors. It is also important to note that a team of engineers from Brazil is in the country to inspect the plant.
“They are testing the boilers to see whether they conform with their guidelines,” he said.
Mr Nyabadza said the engineers were also training locals who would run the plant and do the servicing aspects.
He said the multi-million dollar project was evidence of the fruition of the land reform programme.
“This project started as President Mugabe’s vision of the land reform programme. These are the results of the President’s bigger vision. Energy is one of our major imports and this project is very critical in busting illegal sanctions imposed on us because we will be producing our own fuel,” he said.
The project will eventually see the price of fuel coming down with significant margins.
Mr Nyabadza said they would construct two more ethanol plants in the next 36 months in Chisumbanje and the Middle Sabi. He said apart from fuel, the plant would also contribute 18 megawatts of electricity to the national grid to easy power challenges. The project, Mr Nyabadza said, had transformed the lives of people in Chipinge and was testimony of rural development. The ARDA chairman said through the ethanol project they had employed about 6 000 people in Chipinge with a wage bill of US$1, 3 million a month. As part of rural development, Mr Nyabadza said, they had also planned to embark on other major rural projects in Mashonaland Central, Matabeleland South and North.
“We have already identified huge projects anchored on rural development. We are now talking with investors. In Mashonaland Central we are looking at cereal production and in the Matabeleland provinces we are looking at both food and livestock production,” he said.
ARDA has vast swathes of arable countrywide, but its contribution to national economy has been questioned.