Govt to fund soya beans production

24 Feb, 2017 - 00:02 0 Views
Govt to fund soya beans production

The ManicaPost

Business Correspondent
GOVERNMENT is planning to add soya beans and sunflowers on the Presidential Input Scheme to boost oil seeds production.
Minister of Finance and Economic Development Minister, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, made the announcement during a tour of the new soap and cooking oil manufacturing company, Willowton in Mutare last Thursday.

“We are planning and discussing whether we can include soya beans as well as sunflower on the Presidential Input Scheme to expand production of oil seeds to feed into such factories as Willowton,” he said.

The new cooking oil expresser is currently importing three million litres of crude cooking oil each month, which is in-turn refined and packaged into its D’lite cooking oil brand.
Cde Chinamasa said there was need to exploit value chains to create more employment creation and make sure local farmers grow soya beans and sunflowers.

“What Government is encouraging is to build linkages between our manufacturing sector and agriculture.

“The manufacturing sector should try to obtain all their raw materials locally. It is such exploitation of value chains that will create employment and economic growth. In the case of this company (Willlowton) which is into oil production, we are encouraging them to source their soya beans, sunflowers and cotton seed from our farmers, a reason why Government is spending a lot of money into encouraging the growth of agriculture. Last year, we spent US$42 million into cotton production and we are going to do the same next season,” said Cde Chinamasa.

As a way of reducing the influx of cooking oil import, Government in 2015 removed cooking oil from the Open General Import Licence and Travellers Rebate.

This was after it had been realised that over US$220 million worth of cooking was being imported annually at the expense of local producers.

Willowton Zimbabwe non-executive director, Mr Muhammad Shiraan Ahmed, said so far the imported crude oil from Argentina and Brazil was cheaper in the wake of inadequate local supply of soya beans or sunflowers.

“We use about three million litres of imported crude oil each month to manufacture our cooking oil. In April or June this year, we will, however, start a trial run of sunflowers.

Our future plan is to acquire most of our raw materials locally, but at the moment local farmers cannot meet our demand,” he said.

Mr Ahmed, however, expressed confidence in their products in terms of marked demand.

He said in terms of having strength as a brand, D’lite cooking oil had more market domination regionally, being a subsidiary of Willowton Group, which is the biggest oil refiner in Southern Africa.

Willowton Zimbabwe is currently producing 6 200 litres of cooking oil per month with the potential to increase production. Its tank farm storage has the capacity to store up to 10 million litres.

According to the Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe, the country currently consumes 10 000 tonnes of cooking oil per month, a demand which can easily be achieved by local producers.

In Zimbabwe, the major producers of cooking oil are Pure Oil, National Foods and United Refineries among many other smaller competitors.

Willowton Zimbabwe is a subsidiary of South African-based Willowton Group. The Zimbabwe consortium is manufacturing D’lite cooking oil, Sona bath soap and Brite Lite green bar laundry soap.

“We started production of the Sona bath soap in October last year, then moved on to our D’lite cooking oil and Brite Lite green bar laundry soap in December,” said Mr Ahmed.

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