adminPaidamoyo Chipunza Senior Reporter
Zagrinda, a fruit processing company jointly owned by the Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) and Beitbridge Juicing, a private company, will soon open three more fruit processing plants in the country in response to demand for horticulture products on the international market.
The company, which started production in February following completion of the refurbishment of its Norton plant, will also resuscitate its plant in Bulawayo and two others. Speaking after touring the refurbished plant in Norton yesterday, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda commended Zagrinda for putting Zim-Asset into practice by revitalising agriculture, value addition and embracing the public-private partnership by resuscitating the plant, which ceased operations in 2009.
Dr Sibanda said it was clear that the country was on course to recovery.
“The main objective of my visit is to monitor the implementation of Zim-Asset and we have realised that in the sector of value addition we have made tremendous progress. We are happy that you are putting ZiAsset into practice. We see three aspects of Government’s 10-Point Plan, that is rejuvenating the agriculture industry, horticulture has great potential. You have managed to resurrect the plant to full throttle operation,” said Dr Sibanda.
He said the public-private partnership between ARDA and Beitbridge Juicing bearing fruit as evidenced by the resuscitation of the plant at a cost of $3 million.
Dr Sibanda said owing to that partnership, almost 10 000 horticulture farmers had found a market with Zagrinda, which then processes the produce into puree, paste, juices and concentrates.
“We have a bigger challenge once we increase the produce that comes in. We are likely to expand the base of participants and then this process grows our economy. This in turn contributes quickly to the turnaround of the economy. We are very much encouraged that we are on the road to recovery,” said Dr Sibanda.
Arda chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza said they were working on resource mobilisation to open the Bulawayo plant and two additional plants. He said the Norton plant had given them confidence that the 10-Point Plan was actionable.
“This confirms that what was said by the President is a fact, practical and it’s doable. We are the implementing agencies so we are very pleased that they came to see what is happening,” said Mr Nyabadza.Our thrust is now to mobilise resources to up the plant in Bulawayo and if that goes well, we look at two additional plants so that we have four plants dedicated to horticulture products for the international market.”
Zagrinda board member Mr Charles Msipa described the visit by Dr Sibanda and his team as a significant milestone since the project was still in its infancy.
Zagrinda has a capacity to supply 6 000 tonnes of processed fruits annually.
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