Pure Oil invests $2m in contract farming

04 Dec, 2016 - 00:12 0 Views
Pure Oil invests $2m in contract farming

The Sunday News

pure-oil

HARARE – Cooking oil manufacturer Pure Oil Industries (Pvt) Ltd says it has invested $2 million in its initial venture into soya-bean contract farming this season.

The company, which produces around 7 million litres of cooking oil per month, currently imports 80 percent of its crude oil requirements from neighbouring countries.

Crude oil is the main raw material in cooking manufacturing and is derived from soya beans. Said Pure Oil operations head Mr Rod Musiyiwa yesterday:

“What we have said to Government is that we want to secure soya-beans. This year what we have is contract farming, and in this respect we have identified 2 000 hectares to put under soya-beans and this through farmers that we have selected to give all the inputs.

“For this 2 000 hectares we normally work with a figure of plus or minus $1 000 per hectare, so that’s actually $2 million that we have budgeted in terms of contract farming in the current season.”

The company’s engagement of contract soya-bean farmers this year is the first step as it has said it intends to engage the Government next year over accessing land to venture into corporate farming.

“In the second year, we are saying with Government, or one of the Government institutions we want to partner and go into direct farming where we produce at large-scale; firstly we mechanise the land go into full-scale production in terms of land
Pure Oil management said their target is to put a total of 150 000 hectares under soya-bean in both contract and corporate farming models. Mr Musiyiwa said venturing into farming will not only secure the company its key raw material, but also reduce demand for foreign currency to import the raw material.

“We are saying going forward can we have access to farmers, can we also have access as company to go directly into soya-bean farming to try and make sure that we secure our key raw material.

“Because right now we are having to import crude oil and this crude oil is coming through South Africa and Mozambique and it requires foreign currency and we are busy always engaging with the Reserve Bank and competing for limited foreign currency with other areas.

“Our long-terms goal is to make sure that we are able to grow our own soya-beans in the country, and through that value-add thereby participating in the value chain down from the farmers all the way to the consumer,” he said. – Online

 

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