Olivine woos foreign investors

on Tuesday.
“There is huge potential for profits for those willing to come in with investments especially looking at our current capacities, but at the same time there is huge need for capital,” he said.
“We have the potential to out-supply the imported products but have been falling short due to constrained capacity.”
The diversified product manufacturer has in recent years been finding it difficult to cope with an influx of imported brands due to limited capacity.
Although Mr Mushangari could not give Olivine’s operating capacity, most local companies are operating at around 50 percent of installed capacity, according to the last survey by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.
Olivine has added a new range of washing and bathing soaps, margarine and cooking oil brands over the years, such as Perfection, Buttercup, Jade, Harvest, Dolphin, Vegol, Soyola and Sun-seed.
The company also produces candles under the Luna brand. Olivine Industries used to produce the Heinz range, which has now been replaced by the new Olivine canned range.
Chegutu Canners, Olivine’s wholly-owned subsidiary, produces Olivine, Green Valley, Holbrooks, Cartwrights products which include baked beans, canned fruits, curries, mustard, vinegar, sauces, marmalade and jam.
But most of these products are not available on supermarket shelves due to working capital constraints.
Mr Mushangari, however, maintains that the company is still a key player in exporting to Zambia, although of late it has reduced exports to the South African market since they are no longer milling cotton.
South Africa was the company’s major consumer of cotton mill.
The company’s products are largely consumed locally at 80 percent, while exports constitute 20 percent.
As a result of operating below capacity, most locally manufactured goods have been uncompetitive in the region, hence experts have called for export-oriented industrialisation strategies, as envisioned in the five-year Industrial Develop-              ment Policy and the National Trade Policy.
The overarching objective of the IDP and the NTP is to restore the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 15 percent to 30 percent and its contribution to exports from 26 percent to 50 percent by 2016.
Olivine Industries, which imports raw materials for its soap products, will likely benefit from proposed incentives under the Industrial Development Policy such as the re-introduction of the duty drawback system for raw materials imported to manufacture goods for export.
However, the most critical area that needs addressing is trade financing as the majority of companies are in dire need of funding to retool and increase production capacity.