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Martin Kadzere Senior Business Reporter
ONE of the pillars anchoring Zimbabwe’s medium economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation is value addition and beneficiation whose broad significance to the economy includes job creation.
This five-year economic blueprint also targets to create more jobs by 2018.
For long, including presently, employment creation was associated with big capital expensive projects such as mining and manufacturing. While this cannot be disputed, it should be noted there are areas Zimbabwe has not fully exploited to create jobs.
With less capital, investing in value addition in agriculture could help create thousands of jobs.
According to observers, integrating smallholder farmers into inclusive value chains by modernising agribusiness could be an effective way to create more jobs and reduce poverty.
Innovation could potentially boost agricultural employment and make farming a better occupation, especially for youths and women. For small producers to realize their potential, “greater market integration and more inclusive value chains are needed.”
One such seemingly small investment in value terms was done by Best Fruit Processors, which holds potential to create thousands of jobs on an investment of $3 million.
Best Fruit Processors is the joint venture entity established in August 2015 by Beitbridge Juicing Private Limited and the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority for processing fruit at a production plant in Norton. BBJ is the managing partner in the joint venture with 70 percent ownership while ARDA retains the balance.
To date, BBJ has made a capital injection of $3 million since September 2015, to resuscitate the plant which had ceased operations in 2009. BBJ is wholly owned by Schweppes.
The Norton-based fruit processing plant has annual production capacity of 30 000 tonnes of raw fruit which is processed into purees and pastes which are aseptically packaged and therefore preservative free. “Production capacity is 10 tonnes raw fruit per hour.
“We started the processing machines on 31st December 2015 with a commissioning production run for mango and guavas into purees and have started receiving tomatoes, which we are processing into tomato paste. Raw fruits that have gone into the plant this year to date amount to 100 tonnes mango, 257 tonnes guava and 30 tonnes tomatoes,” said engineer Smart Zongololo, general manager, Best Fruit Processors.
The BFP business model heavily relies on the farming community’s ability to invest in the production of relevant fruit for processing at a reasonable price and at the right quality, hence smart public private partnerships are a key feature of the BFP business model.
“A sustainable inclusive business model incorporating communal farmers into our value chains is a key pillar of success for our fruit processing division and therefore a lot of our effort as a group is focused on creating a solid platform for investment in that area as we provide a ready market for fruit that meets our criteria for processing” said Unaiswi Nyikadzino, marketing and public affairs director of Schweppes.
She said the business’ key focus was to meet domestic demand for tomato paste and fruit purees while exporting the surplus. Namibia is one of the key regional markets targeted. But there is huge scope to export to the European countries where there is high demand.
This year, exports are expected to account for 70 percent of sales. The BFP product portfolio is focused on tomato paste, which is expected to contribute about 50 percent of volumes
Most tomato paste used by domestic and regional manufacturers is imported from China.
Further, to creating a sustainable export market for processed fruit, Best Fruit Processors will simultaneously create additional economic value through the creation of about 100 jobs from direct employment and 3 000 indirect jobs as farmers will be signed up for the out-grower programme. Already, 300 farmers are benefiting from the out-grower programme. Since January 2016, BFP has collected fruit from more than 700 farmers across the country from the following areas, Mhondoro-Ngezi (Watyoka), Murombedzi, Honde Valley, Hwedza, Lower Gweru, Chigondora, Macheke, Mamina, Goromonzi, Selous and Domboshawa. The business model for contract-growing for fruit is based on a healthy mix of community irrigation schemes, small holder farmers as well as a few commercial farmers.
The company has procured the raw fruit for a total value of about $300 000. The target procurement spend on feedstock from farmers for the full year (2016) is approximately $2 million, she said and likely to increase to $5 million by end of next year.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha commended the ARDA/Schweppes partnership.
“You don’t just have to look at this plant but you have to look at those farmers who are also going to benefit in the process,” said Minister Bimha after touring the plant last week.
Economists say in the context of Zim-Asset, “a project of this nature holds great potential” to help the country to meet the set targets.
“These are the projects that we really need to look at . . . small in monetary value compared to multi-million mining projects but holds great potential to create jobs and generate foreign currency through exports,” said an economic analyst with a local financial institution.
Online Reporter