Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE massive citrus project at the integrated Zhovhe Farm, some 80 kilometres west of the Beitbridge border town, has gathered momentum with the first harvest from some of the 230 000 orange trees having been carried out recently.
Toppick Investments, a local company, which owns the farm, has since delivered more than 500 tonnes of oranges to the local Beitbridge Juicing plant, a subsidiary of Schweppes Zimbabwe.
The company has set up a highly integrated farm using water from one of the country’s 10 biggest water bodies, Zhovhe Dam.
Toppick Investments’ chief executive officer, Mr Danisa Moyo, said they imported most of the propagating material in batches from South Africa.
He told journalists during a media tour of high-impact projects in Matabeleland South Province.
The media team, led by Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Dr Omphile Marupi, who was also accompanied by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr Nick Mangwana, visited the farm and other projects last Thursday.
“So far, we have harvested and delivered over 500 tonnes of oranges from 800ha, which we have delivered to the local Beitbridge Juicing Company,” said Mr Moyo.
“This is our first harvest from a project we started in 2020, creating 500 jobs, that is 300 seasonal and 200 permanent staff. You will realise that three-quarters of the workforce are women and we have been able to turn around lives through this project,” he added.
The planting of the orange trees, he said, had been done in five phases.
These include Phase 1, with 180 hectares planted in April 2021, Phase 2 covering 220 hectares planted in November 2021, Phase 3 covering 60 hectares and the trees planted in February 2022.
The fourth and fifth phases, covering 280 hectares and 60 hectares were planted in August last year and they also planted lemon trees on 80 hectares.
“We have planted orange trees of the Benny Valencia, Turkey and Midnight varieties. In terms of lemons, we have the eureka species,” said Mr Moyo.
He said they will introduce more citrus varieties in the near future, adding that they had installed a microjet citrus irrigation system.
Mr Moyo said they were looking at harvesting at least 3 000 tonnes next year to feed the local and export markets.
Since starting operations around 2015, the company has acquired 17 irrigation pivots to enhance crop production throughout the year.
Speaking during the tour, Dr Marupi said it was pleasing to note that the farm owners had put land to good use and helped build the local, provincial and national economy at the same time, creating employment.
He encouraged them to carry out more community social responsibility projects and also share knowledge and experiences with communal irrigation farmers surrounding the farm.
“We are seeing a lot of citrus projects coming up in Beitbridge and a lot has been happening in the economic development sector and recently, we saw President Mnangagwa commissioning a huge industrial park in rural Beitbridge. The progress on the ground is impressive,” said the Deputy Minister.
Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited’s spokesperson, Ms Ropafadzo Gwanetsa, said they were targeting to process at least 40 000 tonnes of citrus fruit during the harvesting season.
She said the establishment of the juice plant in Beitbridge, which is powered by a mini-solar power plant during the day and the national electricity grid at night, was one of the many initiatives to drive rural industrialisation.
Citrus production has been growing gradually in Beitbridge district with the smallholder farmers introducing it at their communal irrigation project some 100km south west of the border town in 2011.
The 189 communal farmers at the irrigation-driven citrus project are now producing an average of 700 tonnes of oranges per season to supply the Schweppes Holdings-run Beitbridge Juice Plant (BBJ).
Additionally, three schools in Ward 8, including Shashe primary and secondary and Mopani primary are part of the project.
According to recent farming experts’ projections, the production of citrus has dropped from 10 000 hectares to above 5 000 hectares due to climate change and relayed economic dynamics.
As it stands, Beitbridge produces export-quality oranges, grapefruit and lemons from nearly 3 000 hectares of land used by commercial, communal and irrigation farmers.
The Beitbridge weather conditions present a fertile ground for the production of large, sweet fruits with high juice quality.
