Musimboti sees surge in exports

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter

CERTIFIED herbal medicines manufacturer, Musimboti Traditional Science and Technology Institute (MTSTI)’s exports have surged by more than 30 percent in a year as demand for traditional drugs increases globally, an official said.

MTSTI managing director Mr Morgan Zimunya said the organisation has over the last few years witnessed an increase in demand for its traditional medicine products both on the local and international market.

The Bulawayo-headquartered institution is part of Musimboti African Traditional Association that produces pills, cough mixture, eye drops, tea leaves, ointments and other such medicines.

“Last year our production capacity improved by over 50 percent owing to an increase in demand for our products both on the local and foreign market. We also experienced a growth of over 30 percent on exports, which we largely attribute to referrals by our regular clients overseas.

“We have a number of ‘walk-in’ foreign clients notably these are Zimbabweans living in the diaspora such as in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada. Our clients order their medication and we send using courier services while some buy when they visit the country,” said Mr Zimunya.

The increase in the demand of traditional medicine locally especially late last year and the beginning of this year could have been largely attributed to the fact that most pharmacies in the country had increased prices for medicines while most of them were demanding payment in United States dollars.

“Our Traditional Medical Practitioners’ Council of Zimbabwe (TMPCZ) is becoming more and more visible to the public as we are now experiencing an increase of people seeking our drugs. People are getting to understand that most of the pharmaceutical drugs actually come from the herbal plants, which we administer to them as remedies. We are experiencing a tremendous growth in business to the extent that we are no longer aggressively marketing our products on the streets like we used to do before,” said Mr Zimunya.

Traditional medicines have been used by humankind for the treatment of various diseases since long before the advent of orthodox medicine, and to this day, serve the health care needs of the majority of the population living in the World Health Organisation (WHO) African Region.

“We are also calling for other players in the industry such as faith healers and traditional healers to register with TMPCZ in-line with the Ministry of Health and Child Care regulations and for those in the Matabeleland region and Midlands Province they can do so with us as we also offer the licenses under TMPCZ,” said Mr Zimunya.

Traditional medicine is recognised under an Act of Parliament Chapter 27:14 which include herbal gardens, traditional medicine ingredient sellers, traditional medicine manufacturing companies, faith healers, prophets, traditional birth attendants, spirit mediums and herbalists.