AGRO-PROCESSING concern, United Refineries Limited (URL) has contracted about 130 soya bean farmers this year, as the firm seeks to boost supply of the raw material, an official has said.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
URL chief executive officer, Busisa Moyo told NewsDay that for his company to operate at full capacity, they needed about 20 000 hectares of soya beans.
To meet the demand, Moyo, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president, said they have contracted about 130 soya bean farmers.
Local manufacturers meet soya bean demand through imports, but recently, Moyo told NewsDay that global commodity prices on crude soya bean oil were firming. He said at first they were landing crude oil for $930, but the prices had now shot up to $1 000.
Due to the increase in landing costs of the product, the country was being hit by cooking oil shortage.
To avoid cooking oil shortages on the market, the government has since placed crude oils (soya bean, sunflower and rape seed) on the critical list of import requirements.
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Moyo said business in the first quarter was subdued due to tight economic conditions bedevilling the country. “Demand was low for the first quarter (and) we are not exporting yet. We are consolidating our local market position,” he said.
United Refineries Limited is the second largest cooking oil refinery in Zimbabwe and has a refining capacity of 8 000 metric tonnes of oil seeds per month. Some of the product lines back in production since last year include the cooking oil lines, as well as toiletries such as Bath & Basin, Vogue, Image and Fresh Health Joy.
Zimbabwe has four oil producing firms — ETG Parrogate, United Refineries, Surface Investments and Olivine.
