The Sunday News
AS efforts to revive Cold Storage Company gather momentum, the parastatal has entered into partnership with a private player, Trek Petroleum, which has injected $1 million to revive cattle rearing at Maphaneni Ranch in Kezi.
Officials from Trek Petroleum said at least 123 people had been employed at the new project.
Trek Petroleum started operating at the farm late last year after purchasing about 847 cattle locally and importing 300 heifers in March from Namibia.
Trek general manager Mr Onias Sanangura said to date the company had brought in 1 400 cattle.
“This partnership is obviously very substantial and is ongoing in nature. The project has been hugely beneficial to the community in terms of job creation as Trek at the moment is employing 123 people with more than 90 percent from neighbouring communities,” said Mr Sanangura.
He said the local community had been offered the opportunity to purchase heifers or swop steers for heifers.
“Once in full production, bulls will be bred and be available to the community. The value adding vision of Trek will also mean that we will in time be buying cattle from the community to feed and slaughter,” Mr Sanangura said.
He said Trek would benefit from grazing land and the opportunity to run its cattle business with the aim of rebuilding the national herd.
He said cattle business was a long term investment which needed commitment from everyone involved to make it a success and help restore the national herd to its full potential.
Although CSC chief executive officer Mr Ngoni Chinogaramombe had not responded to e-mailed questions, sources said the company had benefited from the deal as the obsolete and largely non-existent infrastructure such as fencing and pipelines as well as water infrastructure had been replaced with new or repaired ones.
The CSC stands to benefit from any investment as it has been facing a myriad of challenges that saw workers last week storm the offices over unpaid salaries dating back to 2009.
The plant, which was designed to slaughter 800 cattle a day, has been operating at low capacity and according to reports, last month a total of 1 500 cattle were slaughtered.
The troubled company has reported an average loss of $6 million per year for the past decade.
CSC has crafted a turnaround strategy which has been forwarded to Government for approval and to use to seek private partners to revive the company.
