adminAddressing journalists on a media tour at the Olivine plant in Harare, the company’s managing director, Mr Jonas Mushangari, said soyabeans should be considered as a strategic crop.
“Zimbabwe does not have enough soyabeans and we would like the nation and the Government to put priority in the growing of soyabeans. We also encourage the banking sector to fund soya farmers,” he said.
Mr Mushangari, who is also the chairman of the National Soyabeans Association, said they were currently talking to suppliers of raw materials, fertiliser and chemical producers and financial institutions to work together in coming up with a solution to make funding available to the farmers.
“At the beginning of the season we should have achieved some significant progress.
“As Zimbabweans we must ask ourselves if we want to continue as a country of retailers or we want to be a country of manufacturers,” said Mr Mushangari.
He said the nation was producing less than 20 000 tonnes of soyabeans per year against the national demand of about 220 000 tonnes per year.
Mr Mushangari added that the objective for local industry should be creating demand on a sustainable basis.
Over the past year, Olivine Industries has re-introduced some products and also introduced some new ones.
“This has contributed to boosting production levels. Some of the brands that have been re-introduced include Jade soap, Daily soap and Panol cooking oil.
“In terms of new brands Buttercup Light was introduced in the spreads category and this has been very well received by the market,” he said.
Mr Mushangari added that these initiatives have seen market share growth of certain products like Buttercup Margarine. He said when buying a product local consumers should consider the value and quality offered by that product relative to cheap quality imports.
“Pricing of local products depends on a variety of factors and Olivine tries as much as possible to source raw materials locally, but where supply on the local market is short, the company has to supplement with imports.
“Erratic supply of utilities such as water and power directly affects production usually resulting in lower productivity,” he said.
This erratic supply means Olivine experiences extensive downtime and all this adds to costs.
The company commenced the export of toilet soaps and margarine to Mozambique and is this year set to improve with increased production planned for this year’s last quarter.
“Like all businesses in Zimbabwe, Olivine has been hamstrung by short-term, expensive money. Being part of the Industrial Development Corporation and Aico Africa has helped though.
“The shareholders have made an injection into the business which has gone a long way in funding the operations of the business,” said Mr Mushangari.
He, however, added that additional funding was still required to improve capacity utilisation.
Online Reporter