Government challenged to revive agriculture

In an interview, the National Foods Maize Strategic Business Unit managing director Mr Chipo Nheta said foreign markets were dumping cheap and poor quality products in the country, slowing down the agricultural sector and other sectors linked to it.
“Most industries are reliant on this sector hence its failure will affect  local industry as a whole.

“Cereal producers are among the most affected because related products are coming in at a very low price hence it becomes difficult to compete,” he said.
Mr Nheta said for local industries to be competitive on the international market, Government must take decisive measures to help them      grow since they had potential to develop.
“Capacity utilisation is currently at 45 to 50 percent which is not too bad. This is a sign that if local industries are fully supported, 2012 will be a better year.

“The five percent duty on basic commodities is appreciated but now it is no longer holding any water as imports are continually coming in because the percentage is small.”
He challenged the Government to raise duty on imports so that local businesses are given a chance to compete with foreign products and also increase productivity.

“As local businesspeople, we can’t afford to sell our products at such extremely low prices because we experience high production costs, so there will be a need to break even.
“If this challenge is not addressed, it will affect business growth next year and as businessmen, we want to see our businesses grow each year,” Mr Nheta said.

He said though there were some challenges in the business environment this year, 2011 was a good year for his company as they managed to reopen their flour mill in Bulawayo.
“This year has been good and we want to consolidate our market next year and make sure that our business grows.

“We are aiming at improving efficiency so as to widen our market share,” he said.
Mr Nheta said National Foods was coming up with new projects for next year as a way of getting the lion’s share of the market.
“We have new projects on the cards which we cannot disclose at the moment for business reasons but we do have something coming up next year,” he said.