daniel chigunwe
Business Writer
PURE Oil, the producer of Zimgold cooking oil intends to contract sunflower farmers across the country in a bid to improve the availability of its raw material.
The company is targeting 35 000 hectares and contracted farmers will be receiving free inputs.
Pure Oil has already engaged the Agriculture Marketing Authority and Agritex in rolling out an outreach programme to thousands of rural farmers across the country.
“The interest is quite huge,” a Pure Oil official said. “While this helps us to improve the availability of feedstock for our plant, we also see it as an empowerment initiative.
Zimbabwe mainly produces cooking oil from soya beans, cotton seeds and sunflowers.
However, the country has been importing huge amounts of crude oil due to shortages of oil seeds.
Recently, Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe chairman Busisa Moyo said a combination of foreign currency shortages and reduced supplies of oil seed has seen output of cooking oil in Zimbabwe declining by as much as 50 percent.
He said cooking oil companies were failing to get enough foreign currency to import crude oil.
“We are not getting enough foreign currency to import crude oil while the supplies of oil seeds; soya beans and sunflower have been very low,” said Moyo.
“This has resulted in production falling significantly…I would say by between 40 and 50 percent.”
Bongani Ndlovu