eBusiness Weekly
Tinashe Makichi
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed Innscor Africa, in partnership with private firm ProGroup, have set up a new dairy firm called Prodairy, in an initiative set to expand the group’s dairy products manufacturing operations.
Innscor already has running joint ventures with the listed conglomerate, namely Profeeds and Amiata, which owns 80 percent of Probrands.
ProGroup, together with Government, has also started a new company, Mafuro Farming which will rear 400 heifers to boost the new firm’s raw milk supply.
ProGroup chief executive Nigel Philp confirmed to Business Weekly that they had started two joint venture firms; Prodairy and Mafuro farming.
“We have created a new business out of Probrands called Prodairy. We have also started Mafuro Farming, which we are doing as a joint venture with Government.
“We have an initial 400 heifers coming, but we want to bring in over 1 000 to help us alleviate the milk deficit in the country,” said Philp.
Government is targeting milk production to rise to between 97 million to 100 million litres per annum by 2019.
Presenting the 2018 National Budget in December, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Government’s command agriculture programme will also focus on the dairy revitalization programme, aquaculture, and livestock disease control to enhance the quality and size of the national herd, in order to guarantee self-sufficiency and secure export markets.
The dairy revitalization programme is one of the successful private sector initiatives that has managed to restore the dairy industry that had collapsed without Government support.
As such, Government has started continuous engagement with the private sector with a view of identifying other areas where such initiatives could be replicated, taking cognisant of the current fiscal constraints.
