BY REX MPHISA
ACTING President Kembo Mohadi has called on Zimbabweans to rebuild the national livestock herd, add value to raw materials and raise foreign currency by tapping into the export market.
In a speech read on his behalf by Matabeleland South Provncial Affairs minister Abednico Ncube at the official opening of the Beitbridge business expo on Saturday, Mohadi also called for the establishment of animal research centres and development of fodder.
He also took the opportunity to attack traders overpricing goods and fleecing consumers in the process. Mohadi also called on Zimbabweans and other investors to open industries in Special Economic Zones created by his government to attract investment and create employment.
“Our government has declared Beitbridge a Special Economic Zone together with Bulawayo, Harare’s Sunway City, Victoria Falls, Mutare and Masvingo. We want to see a lot of investment and development in Beitbridge as the centre of logistics for Zimbabwe,” Mohadi said.
Beitbridge, he said, needs to quickly industrialise, capitalising on the economic activities around the town and district as the leading producers of oranges, beef and goat meat.
Some of the world’s largest citrus estates, exporting produce to Europe and the world over, are found on both sides of the Limpopo River that divides Zimbabwe and South Africa.
A juice plant supported by these estates has been established on the commercial farms, but the Beitbridge Municipality has been talking to the investor Schweppes to build a plant in the border town.
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Schweppes is also understood to be interested in investing millions of dollars by partnering some local farmers to establish larger plantations and increase output.
Mohadi asked the Higher and Tertiary Education ministry to consider establishing institutions of higher learning in Beitbridge that focus on animal research to develop hybrid livestock.
Beitbridge is a predominently livestock area which boasts beef cattle, goats and sheep.
“We also challenge the institutes to open colleges that will develop animal grass and help the country rebuild it’s national herd at the same time re-establish in Zimbabwe as a world leader in beef production,” Mohadi said.
Mohadi said farmers, with the aid of the government, should rebuild the national herd depleted by a series of droughts and poor animal health practices.
A host of diseases including, foot and mouth and tick-borne, affect cattle in the beef-rich region and recently government gave farmers heifers to breed, but these efforts are being affected by uncontrolled wild and domestic animal movements.
