adminOliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
UNITED Refineries Limited says its $2 million soya bean contract farming project in Umguza and Jotsholo has started.
The Bulawayo-based agro-processing concern said it was venturing into soya bean contract farming to boost the supply of the raw materials to the company.“All I can say at the moment is that our soya project is progressing well,” said the United Refineries chief executive officer Busisa Moyo, adding that he could not elaborate further on the deal citing professional reasons.
The firm, which is Zimbabwe’s second largest cooking oil refinery, needs 96,000 tonnes of oil seed per annum but can only access about 50 percent of that locally.
The company has partnered with SNV where the community in semi-rural areas puts between five and 10 hectares under soya and the farmers will be guaranteed a ready market by United Refineries.
United Refineries has also engaged the Agricultural Rural Development Authority with a view to leasing one of their farms to grow soya.
It is hoped that commercial farmers in the two districts will also be involved in the project.
At the moment, the firm gets soya beans from Chinhoyi and this was adding significantly onto its production costs.
United Refineries has a refining capacity of 8,000 tonnes of oil seeds per month.
It is hoped that the soya bean project will go a long way in boosting the company’s capacity utilisation levels for both the soap and cooking oil divisions, which were in the third quarter reported at 40 percent and 70 percent respectively.
In addition, the project has a lot of positive implications for downstream industries and the economy at large.
In September, Moyo said the country was spending $4 million per month importing cooking oil.
Since the adoption of a multi-currency system in February 2009, the country continues to grapple with an influx of imported products mostly basic commodities, which industry players say were stifling economic revival efforts.
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