Zim farming firm penetrates UK/Middle east market

A Zimbabwean firm says it has exported 500 tonnes of fruits and vegetables into the lucrative UK markets.
Marondera-based agro-company Rollex (Pvt) Ltd which has invested massively in agro-foods production is one of the country’s export-based companies. It runs four farms which are producing fruits and vegetables for export markets and employs more than 6 000 people from Marondera, Wedza and other surrounding areas at its peak period. It is owned by giant, Lonrho.
Rollex chairman Mr Edwin Moyo said more than US$10 million had so far been invested in the project with more investments to be made in the future.

“We have so far invested in US$10 million and the project will reach full scale production by next
year. Some of the phases are already in full production and we expect to be doing 4,5 million tonnes of stone fruit per year, which will be going out for exports in Europe and the Middle East,” he said.

He said this year the company had produced 1 250 tonnes of stone fruit on 188 hectares of land, the largest single project in the southern region. From this produce, 500 tonnes were for the UK markets, 350 tonnes for the Middle East, 150 tonnes for regional markets and 250 tonnes for local consumption.The farms also produced 25 tonnes of blueberries mainly for the local market. Only 5 tonnes made it to export markets. Of the 700 tonnes of strawberries produced this year, 625 tonnes were exported to South Africa while 75 tonnes went to other regional markets.


The farms also produced 2 000 tonnes of vegetables which were packaged for the local markets. Mr Moyo said most of their fruit had a ready market as most of the varieties they used were marketed before being planted.


“We are market driven, the varieties we are growing at the moment have already been marketed in Europe and the Middle East,” he said.


He said the company had however faced challenges in penetrating the South African markets with their stone fruits.


“South Africa does not want to give us access to its markets because we have the advantage of using early varieties so we start selling our produce as early as September and by the time they come on the market in November, we are almost done selling our fruit at a better price,” he said.

He said there was need to reach out to more investors in order to revive the agriculture sector.
“Investors thought Zimbabwe was a risk, but now that the perception of many of these investors has been changed, there are more who have shown interest in working with us,” he said.

Mr Moyo said they were also looking at rehabilitating the avocado outgrowers in Chipinge with a view to resuming avocado exports.
Besides avocados, Chipinge has an abundance of citrus fruits which grow naturally including guavas, oranges, bananas and naartjies that have potential to generate millions of dollars for villagers.

However, lack of investments has seen most of the fruit being sold locally at very low prices instead of fetching more in export markets.