$30k value addition facility set up in Matobo

DABANE Trust has set up a $30 000 value addition facility aimed at processing agricultural produce and improve the lives of the rural communities in Tshelanyemba, Matobo District, Matabeleland South province.

Speaking to Sunday News, the Trust’s project manager, Mr Shepard Moyo, said the processing centre consists of industrial dryer, industrial stove, peanut butter maker and chip slicer valued at $21 900 and a cold room valued at $9 000.

Mr Moyo said: “There are nutritional gardens and the farmers were complaining of markets, so we thought of value addition before the product is brought to the market which is in line with the country’s economic turnaround blueprint, Zim Asset.”

The centre, according to Mr Moyo will be making jam from lemons, oranges and pumpkins. He said other activities to be carried out at the centre included drying vegetables, popcorn making and baking buns.

He said the processing centre was run by a co-operative of 57 members and was registered under the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development.

He added that the project was wholly community owned which would benefit locals with employment including the families of the co-operative members.

“Local farmers can also bring their produce and sell to the processing centre,” he said.

Matobo’s acting District Administrator Mr Obey Chaputsira said market linkages were there with millers and supermarkets like Pick n Pay have shown interest in buying the packaged products from the processing plant.

Mr Chaputsira said: “The challenge we are encountering at the processing centre is that of meeting demand because there is no electricity. Currently production is very low because the processing centre is producing 10 bottles of peanut butter per day, but it has a capacity of producing 100 litres of peanut butter per hour.”

Mr Moyo said they have engaged Zesa countless times and made all payments, but they still have not connected electricity at the centre.

Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said they do not take long to connect electricity to commercial businesses and promised to find out what was causing the delays.

“We don’t take long to connect electricity to commercial businesses, so it might be that they are not on the grid or they have to do something before electricity is connected. We will look into the matter and find out why they have not received electricity,” he said.