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Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Senior Business Reporter
Victoria Foods is expected to resume production next year, including a number of its leading household brands, parent firm CFI Holdings Limited has said.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed (ZSE) diversified agro-concern group hopes this would help move the country towards food self-sufficiency.
CFI said it would utilise Victoria Foods, which exited judicial management in September this year, to underpin national food security.
“The business will be capacitated in financial year 2022, and the market can expect to see the various Victoria Foods brands and offerings in the various supermarkets as the group relaunches this prominent brand,” CFI said.
Victoria Foods was placed under judicial management after being bogged down by capital constraints, which saw it operating below capacity.
In 2016, the High Court granted an order to have the firm and its stock-feeds sister company Agrifoods, placed under provisional judicial management.
At that point, Victoria Foods required about $12 million for recapitalisation to breathe a new lease of life into the milling company.
CFI Holdings Limited engages in poultry, retail, and specialised activities. It was listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in 1997.
In terms of its financials for the six months to March 31, 2021, CFI’s revenue rose 79,8 percent to $3,6 billion from $2 billion reported in the prior comparative period on the back of increased demand for farming inputs.
Group profit increased by 32,1 percent to $319 million from $241 million delivered in the same prior period driven by increased procurement efficiencies and strengthened cost containment efforts sustained during the period.
Total assets stood at $4,6 billion from $4,2 billion in the same period last year.
Interest expenses and mark to market financing costs stood at $653 million compared to $158 million incurred in the prior half-year.
Volumes at Farm and City increased by 82 percent during the period under review owing to a relatively good 2020/2021 rainy season together with the introduction of the foreign currency auction system and the use of US dollar as a mode of payment.
The Glenara Estate is expected to report a summer bumper harvest at full year 2021 results as at September 30, 2021, having established 570 hectares of commercial maize, 173 hectares of soya beans, and 14 hectares of sugar beans for its summer crops during 2020/2021 farming season.
Stockfeed sales volumes for Agrifoods increased during the period on the back of recoveries in lost market share and encouraging success in the targeted medium to large scale commercial farmers.
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