Dairy producers have called on government to scrap import duties on inputs which are not locally available to ensure that prices of final products are competitive in the region
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Dendairy director Daryl Archibald told a delegation from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) which toured the company’s Kwekwe plant on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s milk products were failing to compete locally because of the heavy duty imposed by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority on inputs such as packaging and other machinery imported by dairy companies.
“If the government wants us to just produce for the local market it’s fine, but if we have to go into exports, we ask that they do not charge any duty on any product that is not available locally because even duty of 5% would make us lose the market to South Africa in the region,” he said.
Dendairy is currently producing 9 000 litres of long-life milk every hour at its Kwekwe plant and has already started exporting milk to Mozambique.
It is finding the going tough owing to heavy duty imposed especially on packaging material not locally available.
Industry and Commerce deputy minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa, who was also part of the tour, called on small business operators to venture into production of packaging material for the dairy industry to cut on the imports.
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Dendairy imports plastic bottle tops from South Africa because they are not locally available.
Mabuwa said if the tops were locally manufactured jobs would be created while the country saves on foreign currency outflows.
“In other countries like India and China, these are backyard industries yet our people here want to start big and ignore these little things which could change our economy,” she said.
The OPC was on a two- day tour of companies in Midlands and Bulawayo.
The delegation had 12 ambassadors including, among others, diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, China, Zambia, Malaysia and Tanzania.
The delegation also included officials from the African Development Bank and United Nations officials.
Dendairy opened in 2004 as a family-owned company. A Norwegian company now has 30% shareholding it got in 2009 after funding the acquisition of machinery which has seen a fully automated line for ice cream, fruit juices and other new products being commissioned at the Kwekwe plant.
