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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter—
BULAWAYO agro-processing giant, United Refineries Limited (URL), says it is in discussions with a leading retail chain to export its products to Botswana while plans are underway to break into the Zambian market. Busisa Moyo, the company’s chief executive officer told Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha and Zimtrade officials during a tour of URL yesterday that the firm was on track towards making export milestones to neighbouring countries, which would increase its earnings.
“On the soap side we’ve started discussions with a leading retail chain in Botswana with a view to take some of the product into that market,” said Moyo who could not be drawn to disclose much detail about the imminent deal.
He said dealing in cooking oil was a sensitive enterprise in the context of cheap imports and commended the government for introducing export permits to ensure there were no artificial shortages of the product.
Moyo said URL had excess cooking oil stocks enough to satisfy domestic market demand but stressed the need to strike a balance between local supply and exports.
Despite being the only oil expresser in the southern part of the country and considering its proximity to Botswana and Zambia, Moyo said URL had in the past turned down enquiries for the supply of cooking oil to those markets.
“We’ve made those approaches to the Agricultural Marketing Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development to say as we grow the business we might want to service Botswana and Zambia because we’re very close to them,” he said.
Minister Bimha said he was impressed with the performance of URL.
He expressed surprise that the firm had enough cooking oil and soap stocks yet some traders had approached the ministry seeking permits to import the same products.
Presently URL has 200 permanent workers and an additional 300 contract workers.
The company has also entered into discussions with farmers across the country on a soya-contract supply meant to boost its inputs supply.
The agro-processing firm has said it has set aside about $2 million for soya bean contract farming.
United Refineries is the second largest cooking oil refinery in Zimbabwe and is operating at 60 percent capacity utilisation.
The firm requires 96,000 tonnes of oil seed per annum but can only access about 50 percent of that locally.
United Refineries has a refining capacity of 8,000 metric tonnes of oil seeds per month.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter