State-of-the-art central forest nursery for ATZ

CHAIRMAN Ndudzo’s speech on the occasion of the official handover of equipment to Allied Timbers Zimbabwe.

THE Hon. Acting Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Cde Mangaliso Ndhlovu, The Hon Resident Minister of Manicaland Province, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba, ATZ board members,heads of parastatals, Chief Saunyama, Provincial Administrator and the district administrators, Government officials, Allied Timbers management and staff, invited guests, all protocol observed

Honourable Minister, I am aware that your quick acceptance of my request that you officiate at this function was inspired by your relentless passion to supervise progress of the assignment that you have spelt out to the Board of Directors of Allied Timbers Zimbabwe (Private) Limited and myself.

In this respect, therefore, I have no way out but to mount a spirited illustration of progress that the new Board of Directors has made in the business turnaround efforts of Allied Timbers since January 2019.

Even though we have invited competitors of Allied Timbers to this function, I will not be deterred because I have quickly found out that in the forestry industry, we have more of the classic Greek-Roman synergy — copy, adapt and improve. To be fashionable when we copy, we are using the term benchmarking! In the few cases where we have locally new ideas, we make reference to innovation.

But allow me today, Honourable Minister, to take a pedestrian approach rather than a financial presentation since many of us will remember this function as essentially your field visit to Allied Timbers Zimbabwe (Private) Limited. Besides, the books of Allied Timbers are yet to be audited so that we see if we are out of the woods yet.

Let me speak to the Strategic Plan of Allied Timbers Zimbabwe, which you have endorsed, thus:

1. Re-greening, Production and Sustainability:

a.

For the 2018/2019 rainy season, Allied Timbers planted more than one million one hundred and sixty-nine thousand trees on1,053 ha of land. Of this 944ha was planted from January to March 2019.

We are implementing the procurement of a state-of-the-art central forest nursery whose construction should be complete before end of the year, 2019. The forest nursery will reduce the overall cost of raising seedlings as well as improve control on the quality of seedling that we require for re-greening.

As I stand before you, Hon Minister, Allied Timbers is producing more than 5 000 cubic metres of sawn timber per month in support of the nation’s national housing and infrastructure development programmes.

However, we are having to ask dry

c. d.

timber markets to wait while we dry timber in the sun! We need to build more kilns to improve on the current kiln-drying capacity of 2 800 cubic metres.

Increased kiln-drying capacity that is on our plans will enhance our export competitiveness and brand visibility in both the local and export markets.

On 8 August 2019, Mutare Factory, and Erin and Gwendingwe Estates earned environmental management certification from the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), after painstaking work with much hand holding of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe!

Honourable Minister, this certification is a form of sustainability assurance. Thus, volunteering ourselves to this form of independent 3rd party scrutiny illustrates how much we have taken heed of your ministry’s demands on responsible forest resource management. I owe this management and workers!

e. 2. Mechanisation and Engineering: a.

In June 2019, we got a state-of-the-art boards and doors production plant that now enables Allied Timbers to provide much sought-after cabinetry timber products at our branch in Msasa.

Today, we humbly request you, Honorable Minister, to handover equipment and machinery worth US$550 000 to the operations of Allied Timbers as follows:

Five (5) new 420-horsepower 25-tonne trucks for logging and road gravelling operations;

Four (4) brand new tractors for our log harvesting and pole extraction.

A state-of-the-art compressor for Erin Sawmill.

b. i. ii. iii. 3. Corporate Governance:

The work that we have done on reinforcing clarity on Standard Operating Procedures will enforce accountability and responsible management of your company.

4. Human Resources: a.

Honourable Minister, we have optimised the management structure of Allied Timbers so as to enhance delivery, thus increasing the responsiveness of departmental links in its inherently long value chain.

In the past we have struggled with payroll backlogs but now we have now moved on with improvements in earning with you urging us on;

Essential provision for health and safety is also taking shape. You will be aware, Honourable Minister, that at the

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