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NKAYI District is known for its thick forest cover stretching across vast tracts of land sparsely populated by humans. Seemingly quiet with no major economic activity, the district is the envy of many because of its enormous teak timber resource. In 1996, Pit Joubert set up a timber firm in the district to exploit the highly demanded hardwood timber and furniture products.
Popularly known as “Emathimbeni” in local circles, Joubert Hardwood (Pvt) Ltd is the only manufacturing company in the district — located in the not so busy growth point in Ward 29.
The firm is the largest employer in the district with 135 workers, a majority of whom are local men and women.
Being located in the resource area, the company harvests timber, processes it into raw materials and manufactures finished timber products that it sells across the country and abroad.
Plant manager, Edna Taedza, says the value addition and beneficiation thrust has enabled the firm to survive the difficult economic tide and be able to retain the bulk of its workforce.
“We do all the production processes here from logging to finished products. We’ve five chain saws in the bush for logging as well as tractors and trucks for transportation.
“The logs are then taken through breaking down saws and then re-sawed into different timber sizes,” she said.
“From here our fully equipped carpentry shop takes over and manufactures different finished products. Only wooden tiles and decking are done in our Harare branch.”
Joubert Hardwood manufactures wooden chairs, tables, bedroom suits, doors and windows. It also does wooden floors, swimming pools, wooden cabins and panelling among others.
The government’s blue-print, Zim-Asset, prioritises value addition and beneficiation as a long term strategy to consolidate domestic economic growth and improve local product competitiveness.
The strategy seeks to reverse the colonial economic model in which the country relied on cheap raw material exports as opposed to high value finished products.
Taedza said the company has a huge domestic market with major exports going to South Africa, Israel, France and the United States.
“We’ve got a warehouse and a branch in South Africa where the marketing of our products to other foreign markets is done,” she said.
“Liquidity is our major problem because of the exchange rate. As you know we produce in dollars and export in rands, which erodes our profits. The company used to enjoy higher earnings prior to dollarisation in 2009.”
Taedza said the disparities between the firming US dollar and weakening rand had negatively affected the efficiency of their operations.
She also said the company was in search of new fields to get good logs.
The situation is not gloomy though.
“We got a new order from South Africa which has made us a bit liquid. In the past few years we reduced our staff from a peak of about 205 workers. We’re steady now,” Taedza said.
Going forward the company intends to acquire modern equipment to expand its operations in line with market expectations.
“The market is there but production is suppressed. Teak products are predominantly found in Zimbabwe but the business is capital intensive and requires more money,” she added.
Despite concerns over low wages, many locals view this company as a fortress of hope with a strong economic force in their lives.
Ward 29 councillor Kufakwezwe Ncube said the community has a good relationship with Joubert, who resides in Nkayi.
“This company is situated in my ward. As far as I know three quarters of workers there are locals save for a few technical people,” said Ncube, a former council chairperson.
“The company benefits us a lot in terms of furniture repairs to schools. I know eight schools in Mkalati area where they provided furniture.
“Joubert also donates to charity especially at the hospital and partners with council in repairing roads in areas where he gets logs.”
Ncube said the local authority closely monitors the activities of the firm to ensure locals benefit from the resource.
“What happens is that council, in collaboration with the Forestry Commission and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), do an inventory of the forest. Depending on the quantity of the resource, the local leadership is informed before Joubert gets the go ahead to do logging,” he explained.
“If agreed the company will pay 15 percent of the value of the logs, which will be deposited directly to the community through a bank account that is administered by council.
“The community will then identify a development project that will be financed using funding from that levy.”
The company is involved in a number of corporate social responsibilities such as provision of furniture to schools.
“We’ve agreed to provide furniture to two classrooms in every school in the district. We also support children and old people’s homes,” said Taedza.
She said the company owed council $60,000 but they had committed to paying $12,000 per month to clear the debt.
Online Reporter