News Update as @ 1530 hours, Tuesday 10 June 2014Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

By Tawanda Musarurwa

Analysts say clarity on the review of the country's indigenisation policy will help improve the country's economic per-formance in the second half of the year.

One of the key factors that has con-strained economic performance in the first half of the year has been a lack of confidence on the part of foreign inves-tors, which has had a negative impact on new capital flows into the economy.

Economist Trust Chikohora said the economy has been lacking positive stimuli.

"The major problem we have had in the first half is to do with liquidity chal-lenges as well as a lack of confidence in the economy.

"As things stand now it is difficult to

see any improvement in the liquidity situation going into the second half of the year. Confidence levels are likely to remain subdued unless there is a rad-ical shift in policy or some unforeseen major event that would have a positive stimulus in the economy," he said.

But he believes that the said review of

the policy could provide just the right tonic for the second half.

"The talk about review in the indige-nisation policy could have had a huge positive impact if it came out very clearly and unambiguously to demon-strate that we will now apply it in a manner which makes us more compet-itive in attracting foreign direct invest-ment than other African countries."

Last month, the Government indicated that the indigenisation policy would be reviewed to also include the Profit Sharing Model (PSM).

Analysts at Lynton-Edwards Stockbro-kers contend that the PSM model can be useful to Zimbabwe.

"We have found the Profit Shar-ing Model (PSM) interesting, and in our view it looks like a much better

option that investors may find easier to work with. We believe so, because it’s a strategy which has worked well in other countries where it has been implemented.

"In Africa it has been used in Tanzania, Angola and Kenya. Indonesia has also used it in the oil and gas industry....Yes, the model is mostly found in petroleum exploration and development projects, but we believe it can be implemented with equal success in our mining and agricultural sectors," said the analysts in a recent report.

Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Francis Nhema last week told a Sapes policy dialogue forum on indigenisation that consist-ency in implementing the indigeni-sation laws was vital to attract new investment into the country. •

'Clarity on indigenisation can drive second half performance'

Minister Nhema

2 NEWS

BH24 Reporter

A board which runs the State-owned Air Zimbabwe has called for the arrest of more senior managers of the airline implicated in the aviation insurance scam involving more than $10 million.

Three other Air Zimbabwe senior man-agers, including company secretary Grace Pfumbidzayi, general manager Innocent Mavhunga and his predeces-sor Peter Chikumba had earlier in the year been arrested and charged with defrauding the Zimbabwe national airline. The latest report by Air Zim-

babwe’s auditors BCA Forensic Audit Services, however, recommended that criminal charges be preferred against five more managers – acting general manager Norbert Machingura, former general manager finance and corpo-rate services Oswell Matore, finance and administration manager Patience Tichagwa and general manager human resources Oswald Madziwa.

“In light of the amounts which Air Zim-babwe lost as a result of fraudulent transactions and in view of the need to trace how the funds were applied and

assets purchased using proceeds from fraudulent transactions, consideration should be made to specify the follow-ing parties so that investigations can be carried out in terms of the prevention of Corruption Act,” the audit report said.

Board chairman Valentine Sinemane said the national airline was working on the audit recommendations, which called for the arrest and investigations of managers.

The airline had in January 2012 been placed judicial management after it ceased operation due to financial con-straints. A revival attempt failed as pilots refused to resume domestic ser-vices, with unpaid salaries and allow-ances amounting to more than $35 million. The government announced that Air Zimbabwe would be grounded indefinitely on 24 February 2012.

In March the same year, the Govern-ment established Air Zimbabwe Pri-vate Limited as the new owner of the carrier after disbanding the airline’s former parastatal owner Air Zimbabwe Holdings, and absorbing a $150 million debt. The airline resumed flying on a continuous basis in early May 2012. —VenturesAfrica •

Air Zimbabwe managers indicted in $10m insurance scam

BH24

By Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has received a $19 million grant from the United States President’s Emer-gency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), through the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for tech-nical support.

The funding, which comes under two agreements with the Research Triangle International and UZ Department of Community Medicine Surveys, Evalua-tions, Assessments and Monitoring, will strengthen the country’s health sys-tems specifically focusing on health-re-lated strategic information. Among the

new information and communication technologies unveiled last week is an upgraded version of the District Health Information System database (DHIS-2.0).

It is a very interactive system that allows users to see some notifications as well as generate interpretations and create groups for discussions. Commis-sioning new databases which, among other information, are linked to the DHIS 2.0, Health minister Dr David Parirenyatwa hailed the partnerships.

“This is strategic at facility level, policy level and at individual level. For the indi-vidual, it supports not only the patient's

profile and treatment needs for clinical decision-making purposes but also for public health needs supporting the revitalisation of fundamental elements of primary health care such as commu-nity participation,” he said. He pledged his ministry’s undertaking to ensure that health officers “feed accurate and up-to-date information that is relevant and appropriate into the system.”

US Ambassador Bruce Wharton said the new systems would provide data for evidence based decisions. “Timely availability, analysis, and use of health information are essential to develop-ing and implementing effective health interventions and improving the health of the people. Running health programs without consistent, accurate, and timely reporting of disease outbreaks, health program data, and disease surveillance information is like driving at night without headlights – not very effective, at best, and potentially quite dangerous, at worst,” he said.

The new software has been success-fully rolled in all districts in the country while previously parallel information systems have been integrated into the new system. •

4 NEWS

Ministry of Health and Child Care receives $19 million US grant

Dr Parirenyatwa

BH24 Reporter

Zimbabwe is set to buttress its role as key player in the global diamonds arena by hosting the second diamond conference later this year.

The conference, which is being organ-ised by the Ministry of Mines and Min-ing Development, will be held between November 6 and 7 in Harare.

Mines and Mining Development per-manent secretary Professor Francis Gudyanga said the event will offer the country an opportunity to take stock of the developments that have taken place in the local diamonds sector to date.

“Since being accepted again as a full member of the Kimberley Process Cer-tification Scheme in 2011, Zimbabwe made a lot of progress in the diamond industry.

By organising this conference, we would like to highlight these accom-plishments. Zimbabwe found its place again in the industry,” he said.

Among the keynote speakers at the event will be the Minister of Mines Wal-ter Chidhakwa who will address the

audience on behalf of the Government, as well as dignitaries from leading Afri-can diamond producing countries and delegates from world leading diamond traders, manufacturers, financiers and jewelers will come together during the conference.

Zimbabwe is the third largest dia-mond-producing nation in the world in amount of carats.

Earlier this year, the Government indi-cated that it was streamlining the dia-mond sector from the current seven players to remain with one or two

effective players. And this could be one of the key outcomes of the conference.

According to the last Kimberley Pro-cess report, Zimbabwe produced 12,060,161.70 carats in 2012 with a value of $644 million.

The Government is currently in the process of optimising its revenues from diamond sales by organising different tenders.

In December 2013, the first Zimba-bwean rough diamond tender in Ant-werp achieved US$10,5 million from the sale of 279,723 cts.

A second Antwerp tender in February 2014 brought in US$70 million from 959,931 cts. In March 2014, a diamond tender in Dubai raised US$29,3 million from the sale of 380,626.24 cts. •

NEWS5

Zimbabwe to host second Zimbabwe Diamond Conference

By Lynn Murahwa

Zimbabwe's tobacco growers for the 2014 cropping season have increased by 17 percent over the same period last year, Tobacco Industry Marketing Board figures show.

As at the close of last week, 106 267 growers had registered for 2014 sea-son compared to about 90 879 who had registered by the same period last year.

A1 registered tobacco growers for this season currently stand at 37 743 while registered larger A2 farmers are fewer at 11 696.

Communal farmers have dominated the number of registered growers at 48 200. Small scale commercial farm-ers have the least number of registered tobacco growers at a 8 628.

In terms of new growers, Mashonal-and West has the highest number of new registered growers at 11 501 and Matabeleland having the least number of only 8 new growers. Manicaland has recorded a total of 5 365 new growers.

Mashonaland Central has 7 000 new growers while Mashonaland East has 4

000 new growers.

Midlands and Masvingo have 345 and 336 new growers, respectively.

It is likely that the majority of the grow-ers that have registered for the new cropping season will be contracted. Current seasonal sales point to the fact that contract tobacco farming now

dominates the sector.

"Contractors' seasonal purchases for 2014 have further increased to 137,8 million kgs, thus increasing its market share to 74,6 percent of the current total production," said TIMB.

The increase in the number of grow-ers would normally have pointed to a bump in production of the golden leaf in the upcoming tobacco cropping sea-son.

But there has been a 12 percent decrease in seed sales this year com-pared to last year’s sales.

This season 500 000 seeds have been sold for 87 000 hectares while last year saw a larger number of 600 000 seeds for 100 000 hectares. •

6 AGRICULTURE

2014 tobacco growers increase by 17 percent

The canning industry in Zimbabwe is collapsing due to reduced activity in the manufacturing sector and over reli-ance on imported goods, with 10 out of the 30 canneries that used to dom-inate the sector left still operational, an official said on Tuesday.

Survival of the canning industry is largely dependent on operations of companies involved in the production of a variety of canned goods.

Carnuad Metal Box managing director John van Gend said productivity was on the decline due to low demand.

“All our canned food is now imported,” he said. “From over 30 canneries in the last 15 years, there are about five still operating.”

The company is one of the remaining canneries in the country. Others still operating include Colcom, Cairns, Oli-

vine and Honeywood in Mutare.

Van Gend said power shortages and imports were hitting hard on the industry.

Carnaud Metal Box was established over 65 year ago, primarily as a metal packaging producer but has diversi-fied into plastic packaging due to low demand for canning products. The company makes bottle tops, paint as

well as packaging for shoe and floor polish.

Van Gend said recapitalising the busi-ness and buying new equipment were some of the biggest challenges that the industry faced.

“We have invested over $8 million in equipment and infrastructure in the past few years,” he said, adding, “We need $1.5 million to $2 million to fund new projects.”

He said the company’s metal packag-ing business only operated four days a week on one shift as a result of low product demand.

“About 10 to 15 year ago, this plant used to run 24 hours for 365 days a year,” he said.

At its peak, Carnaud Metal Box pro-duced 36 million tones of canning products a year but this has slumped to at most 1.5 million tonnes annually.

As a result, the number of workers has also dropped from 100 to 251. - New Ziana •

7 MANUFACTURING

Canning industry in dire straits

Econet Wireless, it is emerging, will be launching a new subscription and “pay as you go” TV service called ipidi in the coming weeks to few months.

A job advert for a marketing director that the company posted to its web-site last week Wednesday shows the company is looking to fill in the posi-tion, in their words, “as soon as pos-sible” for the South African market.

It’s not clear yet how the service will work but it will have a set-top box and indications from the advert are that Econet is looking to compete with the expensive TV options on the market.

We’re guessing this means they’re gunning for Multichoice’s DStv but we could be wrong.

The new marketing director, the ad says, needs to “very quickly establish it in the SA market as a desirable, aspirational and dependable alterna-tive to the more expensive TV options that are currently available.”

That Econet Wireless International was looking to do pay TV is not new news. Liquid Telecom did indicate

back in November that they were working on something for the Kenyan market come 2014. Nothing further was mentioned regarding the Kenyan launch, or a Zimbabwean launch that was supposed to follow.

Well, nothing except this mention that the company has apparently qui-etly started the ipidi rollout in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Seeing none of the

people at Liquid Telecom Zimba-bwe has so far agreed that they are already working on an IPTV product (the Liquid Zimbabwe MD denied this at our recently held Broadband Forum), we’re guessing they are moving super stealth with this one, for reasons best known to them.

But if it is indeed true that Zimbabwe is moving already, those stealth oper-

ation reasons likely have more to do with licensing than anything else.

Indeed it looks like the only mar-ket Econet Wireless is happy to be launching in without careful treading is the South African one. However and whatever the reasons, ipidi has come, and Econet is looking to sell the first 150,000 set top boxes soon. - TechZim •

8 TECHNOLOGY

Econet near to launching pay TV service called ipidi

The equities market made a quick return into positive territory today, after yesterday's drop bucked a 11-day posi-tive trading run.

More broadly the bourse continues on a zig-zag trend as the weak eco-nomic fundamentals prevail. In today's trades, the Industrials Index gained a marginal 0.58 points (or 0.33 percent) to close at 178.49 points as a number of heavyweight counters traded in the green.

Cigarrette manufacturer BAT added 80 cents to trade at 1 200 cents, while Hippo pushed up 3 cents to 68 cents.

Telecoms giant Econet and Meikles both gained a cent to close at 71 cents and 20 cents, respectively. Old Mutual advanced 0.81 cents to trade at 249.01

cents and Masimba added 0.40 cents to 1.50 cents.

On the downside, ABCH and SeedCo eased 2 cents to trade at 70 cents and 71 cents respectively. TSL retreated a cent to 29 cents. Overall, the total value of trades was $686K, largely boosted by trades in Econet, OK and

Edgars.

The Mining Index added 2.25 points (or 5.79 percent) to close at 41.08 points as Bindura gained 0.25 cents to close at 3 cents. Falgold, Hwange and Riozim all maintained previous trading levels.

— BH24 Reporter •

9 ZSE REVIEW

Equities bounce back into positive territory

It is a well-known fact that Zimbabwe is primary exporter.

It follows then that overall economic performance (at least as things stand, that is, before the effective implemen-tation of wholesale value addition and beneficiation strategies) decline in our level of exports will impact negatively on the economy.

Zimbabwe's beef exports to the Euro-pean Union were stopped in 2001 due to an outbreak of foot and mouth dis-ease.

And this surely has had material impact on the performance of the agricultural sector and the economy in general since then.

It is therefore commendable that the Government has shown initiative in trying to revive beef exports into that part of the world.

Last month Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said Cabinet would soon discuss a national strategy on livestock production in preparation for the exports.

But even as we await a Cabinet

announcement on the matter, it is good to know that Government is fully aware of the critical areas that need to be addressed if the country is to resume beef exports to the EU.

One such area is the regulations per-taining to the marketing of meat and other livestock products.

Addressing a national symposium on enhancing the competitiveness of the

livestock and meat industry in Zimba-bwe last week, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irriga-tion Development Davis Marapira said regulations on the marketing of live-stock need to be revisited.

“The regulations on the marketing of livestock and livestock products need to be reviewed, especially on the importation of meat and other live-stock products, which have had nega-tive impact on local producers,” he said.

The move will not only enhance the local sector's competitiveness, but will likely see Zimbabwe being able to resume beef exports to the European Union in view of indications that the regional bloc is prepared to engage.

In February this year EU ambassador

to Zimbabwe Aldo Dell’ Ariccia told a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Com-merce investment conference that if the Zimbabwean Government fulfills the EU's sanitary standards on meat exports, "EU will send a mission to cer-tify the meat" which would likely lead to a resumption of the country's beef exports into the EU.

Zimbabwe, through the Cold Storage Company (CSC), used to supply the EU market with tonnes of beef, gener-ating significant levels foreign currency for the country.

If beef exports played such a crucial role for the economy in the recent past, surely they can be revived, especially as both buyer and seller seem enthusi-astic about the idea. •

10 BH24 COMMENT

Revival of beef exports to EU can stimulate economy

BH24

In order to make full use of its oceans’ potential, the South African govern-ment is in the process of developing a blue economy strategy, said the Department of Environmental Affairs.

“South Africa has large ocean spaces and we are beginning to appreciate the value of this vital national asset and how it can contribute to our livelihoods and economy,” said Environmental Affairs Deputy Director General Dr Monde Mayekiso, on Monday.

He said technology was unlocking the resources that lie within the ocean and the sustainable use of these resources will have a meaningful contribution towards the ability to create jobs in years to come. “Much of our ocean remains unexplored and therefore there is a need to urgently gather infor-mation and describe what resources are available and how they can be used sustainably,” he said.

Mayekiso was speaking at a meet-ing with various stakeholders in Port Elizabeth, following the gazetting of the White Paper on the National Envi-ronmental Management of the Ocean (NEMO) for implementation. The White Paper on NEMO, which was approved

by Cabinet in December 2013, aims to govern activities and role players with a stake in the ocean, in order to ensure optimal and sustainable use of the marine environment.

The National Development Plan identi-fied ocean economy as one of the key drivers to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030.

Dr Mayekiso noted that the policy is in accordance with the South African constitution and is relevant to interna-

tional laws, domestic legislation which includes the National Environment Act and associated supporting legislations.

“A number of key areas such as Aqua-culture, Marine Transport, Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration would be crucial in growing the economy providing much needed jobs and improving prosperity while ensuring environmental sustain-ability and integrity,” Dr Mayekiso said. — SA News •

12 REGIONAL NEWS

SA developing blue economy strategy

13 DIARY OF EVENTS

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

POWER GENERATION STATSGen Station

9 June 2014

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 447 MW

Kariba 750 MW

Harare 45 MW

Munyati 24 MW

Bulawayo 21 MW

Imports 50 MW

Total 1237 MW

11 June - Rainbow Tourism Group 15th Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders, Place: Jacaranda Rooms 2 and 3 at the Rainbow Towers Hotel and Conference Centre, 1 Pennefather Avenue, Harare, Time: 12:00

13 June 2014 - Securities and

Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe 2nd Shareholders Forum & Responsible Invest-ing in Zimbabwe Conference 2014 Place : Cresta Lodge, Harare, Time : 8am -2pm

26 June - Masimba Holdings Limited Thirty-Ninth Annual

General Meeting of Mem-bers for the period ended 31 December 2013, Place: 44 Til-bury Road, Willowvale, Harare, Zimbabwe, Time: 12:00

THE BH24 DIARY

BH24

15 ZSE

ZSEMOVERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC

MASIMBA 36.36% 1.50 ABC -2.78% 70.00

BNC 9.09% 3.00 SEEDCO -2.74% 71.00

BAT 7.14% 1,200.00 TSL -3.33% 29.00

MEIKLES 5.26% 20.00

HIPPO 4.62% 68.00

ECONET 1.43% 71.00

OLD MUTUAL 0.33% 249.01

PPC 0.05% 215.80

Indices

INDEx PREVIOUS TODAY MOVE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 177.91 178.49 +0.58 POINTS +0.33%

MINING 38.83 41.08 +2.25 POINTS +5.79%

Stocks Exchange

16 AFRICA STOCkS

Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July

Cote dIvoire 246.37 +2.18 +0.89% 07Mar

Egypt 7,949.60 -75.68 -0.94% 06Mar

Ghana 2,343.98 +9.46 +0.41% 06June

Kenya 4,881.56 +12.30 +0.25% 06June

Malawi 12,662.47 +0.00 +0.00% 07Mar

Mauritius 2,074.51 -3.51 -0.17% 07Mar

Morocco 9,544.10 +21.01 +0.22% 07Mar

Nigeria 41,529.11 -40.98 -0.10% 06June

Rwanda 131.27 +0.00 +0.00% 24Oct

Tanzania 2,018.97 +25.40 +1.27% 07Mar

Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar

Uganda 1,503.90 +0.81 +0.05% 10Sep

Zambia 4,242.74 +14.95 +0.35% 10April

Zimbabwe 178.58 +1.54 +0.87% 06June

African stock round up Commodity Prices

Name Price

Crude Oil 1,300.91 -0.21%

Spot Gold USD/oz 1,292.63 -0.26%

Spot Silver USD/oz 19.38 -0.46%

Spot Platinum USD/oz 1,421.25 -0.33%

Spot Palladium USD/oz 798.50 -0.64%

LME Copper USD/t 6,770 -0.18%

LME Aluminium USD/t 1,780 -1.17%

LME Nickel USD/t 18,230 -1.73%

LME Lead USD/t 2,095 -1.41%

Quote of the day —"Winners make a habit of manufac-turing their oWn positive expectations in advance of the event." - brian tracy

Globalshareholder.com

17 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UK April industrial output rises at fastest annual pace since 2011

British industrial output rose at its fast-est annual pace in more than three years in April, showing that the eco-nomic expansion was continuing to broaden out, official data showed on Tuesday.

Industrial output rose by 0.4 percent on the month, as expected in a Reu-ters poll, to leave it 3.0 percent higher than a year ago, its biggest rise since

January 2011.

Output for manufacturing also increased by 0.4 percent in April, hav-ing previously grown at its fastest pace for a calendar quarter in nearly four years during the first three months of 2014.

That too was in line with a 0.4 percent in a Reuters poll of economists. Annual growth in manufacturing output of 4.4

percent was the strongest since Febru-ary 2011.

Britain's robust economic recovery over the past year has been heavily reliant on consumer demand and housing-re-lated sectors, but there are increasing signs that the drivers of growth are becoming more varied.

The Bank of England has said it wants to see stronger business investment and exports before it raises interest rates from their record-low 0.5 per-cent, something most economists think is just under a year away.

The Office for National Statistics said industrial output would have shown even greater growth had it not been for an unusually warm April, which was 2.7 degrees Celsius hotter than a year earlier.

The warmer weather contributed to a 11.5 percent decline in electricity and gas output in April, which knocked around 1 percentage point off the annual growth rate for industrial out-put.

Industrial output in the three months to April was 1.1 percent higher than the previous three month period, its biggest increase since June 2010.

Last week's Markit survey of factory purchasing managers suggested that economic rebalancing was underway, with growth continuing to be robust in May.

And on Monday the EEF manufacturers' trade body revised up its growth fore-cast for the sector this year to 3.6 per-cent from 2.7 percent expected three months ago - a faster expansion than for the economy as a whole, which it expects to grow by 3.0 percent.

However, manufacturing has further to go to catch up on the deep slump after the 2008 financial crisis. Factory output is still 7.0 percent below its peak, while services sector output is already well above its pre-crisis peak.

Recovery however has not yet trans-lated into higher price pressures, allow-ing the Bank of England last week to once again keep interest rates on hold. — Reuters •

By Charles Dhewa

While it is now clear that Zimbabweans are able to produce diverse crops and keep many types of livestock, value addi-tion remains a tough nut to crack.

If the majority of farmers are going to double their current production of horti-culture commodities, a glut in Mbare and other fresh produce markets around the country will throw many farmers out of business. In fact, this is already happen-ing during certain periods of the year.

The table shows vegetable supply to Mbare Farmers Market (in tonnes) from January to March 2014: Commodi-ties worth more than $2.5 million were traded in Mbare Wholesale market from January to March 2014.

Leading the pack were potatoes, bananas and onions. At a supply of more than five tonnes, Red Pepper was also a significant player on the market. Other markets in Bulawayo, Mutare, Kwekwe, Gweru, Zvishavane, Chinhoyi, Bindura and Masvingo also continued to absorb high quantities of horticulture commodities some of which should have

been processed into diverse products. Agriculture markets as a determinant of value

The true value of agriculture can only be seen at the market where high value commodities separate themselves from the rest. However, very few farmers pro-duce with a specific market or consumer in mind. The assumption is that there is a buyer somewhere. Since every farmer has this mindset, all farmers are often disappointed by the market when they are confronted with gluts.

Dumping of processed products like tomato puree in Zimbabwe is destroying local agro-processing efforts and affect-ing many farmers.

To get a sense of how far we have regressed on the value addition front, it’s important to examine what has hap-pened to some of our food processing companies. Fresca (located in Mt Hamp-den, Harare) stopped operating a few years ago.

The company used to dry various types of vegetables (cabbages, onions, carrots, peppers - green, red & yellow -, butter-

nuts and tomatoes into a wholesome nutritious vegetable product. Seventy percent of this product was for Nestle Zimbabwe which used it to produce baby food while about 15% was exported. The remainder was consumed locally. The demise of Fresca has negatively affected farmers who have been forced to search for alternative markets.

Another agro-processsing company that has been dormant for years is Zagrinda, located in Norton. The firm

used to require 90 tonnes of tomatoes per run for its huge machinery. Although many farmers are producing tomatoes, mobilizing them to produce 90 tonnes of the same quality per day has remained a nightmare, especially with farmer organisations showing little interest and capacity in building strong commodity associations.

Zim Tomato, located in Msasa, used to dry tomatoes for export and domestic consumption. At its peak, it could take

18 ANALYSIS

Why value addition is an urgent issue in the agriculture sector

120 tonnes of tomatoes daily. Big farmers used to send two huge trucks (gonyets) every day to Zim tomato. Fol-lowing its demise, the former Foreman is now buying and selling tomatoes at Mbare market.

Cairns used to produce tomato puree with raw materials from Cashel Valley and other sources. Although there are efforts to recapitalise it, the firm has stopped operating viably.

Lyons. used to process tomato puree for export to Malawi and other countries but is no longer in that sort of business. Other firms that have stopped agro-pro-cessing include; Flue Pack, Muchero Wholesalers and Kutapira, among other outfits.

The only processor that has soldiered on is Chegutu Canners which is still con-tracting farmers to produce jam toma-toes for processing. However, the firm is still grappling with viability challenges.

Some of the factors that have contrib-uted to the death of local horticulture processing companies include imported tomato puree from China and other countries, landing into Zimbabwe at half the cost of local processing.

Another factor is inconsistent supply from farmers due to failure by farmer organisations and processing companies to build a strong, consistent grower base.

Recurring problems like post-harvest

losses require fresh strategies. Besides defining the situation, we should be able to point out wasted efforts and identify incorrect assumptions in order to sort out the right value addition strategies.

Otherwise, Zimbabwe will continue to be on the receiving end of foreign processed food when we have valuable raw materi-als. Our porous borders have to be fixed as part of a sustainable solution.

A well thought out value addition initia-tive will enable diversification of our agro-based economy and motivate farmers to produce demand-driven commodities.

We should strongly think about aligning agriculture with the country’s industrial-isation efforts, otherwise value addition will remain nice words in policy docu-ments for the next 50 years without any visible positive practical impact.

Charles Dhewa is the Chief Execu-tive Officer of Knowledge Transfer Africa (Pvt) Limited which has an agriculture knowledge sharing facil-ity known as eMkambo. He can be contacted through: charles@knowl-edgetransafrica.com or charlesd-hewa7@gmail.com •

19 ANALYSIS