The Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company (ZFC) says it is now ready for the 2015/2016 farming season and has so far stocked 100 000 tonnes of fertiliser.
BY TARISAI MANDIZHA
Speaking to stakeholders on Friday, ZFC managing director, Richard Dafana said the whole sector had at least 200 000 tonnes on its stocks.
“As ZFC, we have about half of that and most of it its already in the country already manufactured and stockpiled. We have stockpiles here at Aspindale and Msasa. All our distribution channels have been stocked,” he said.
Dafana said the company will manufacture an additional 30 000 to 40 000 tonnes of compound D fertiliser by the end of November. It will import Ammonium Nitrate to make up for the shortfalls at Sable Chemical Industries Ltd.
Dafana said ZFC was currently operating at 40% capacity utilisation. ZFC has two granulation plants with a capacity to produce 200 000 metric tonnes (MT) per year, while the blending plant has a capacity of 150MT per year.
He said for the company to increase capacity utilisation, the agriculture sector had to become viable.
“The recovery can only happen if the farmers become very competent and at this moment time some of them are not viable. That is why we are partnering with Agritex and other stakeholders in actually teaching the farmers the correct way of farming,” Dafana said.
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“It can also happen if farmers start getting good markets for their crops and getting good prices because that will incentivise them to put more money into agriculture. So it’s the recovery of the whole industry.”
He said failure by the Grain Marketing Board to pay farmers has affected agricultural productivity.
Dafana said the current power supply situation was a challenge to manufacturers who were now resorting to alternative sources of energy such as generators.
He said ZFC has three dedicated feeds to service the company, which are Willowvale, Budiriro and Kambuzuma but the challenge was power cuts.
“People are a bit worried about the power supplies, we are making attempts and we have solutions of getting around them. Right now we are ready and prepared for the summer season,” said the ZFC boss.
