Fertiliser producers yesterday said there will be no need
for imports in the forthcoming 2019-2020 summer cropping season because they
have enough stocks.
The firms said while they were grappling with foreign
currency challenges, they had collaborated with financial institutions to
mobilise adequate resources to ensure the season was a success.
Representatives of fertiliser manufacturers said this
yesterday while giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement chaired
by Gokwe Nembudziya legislator Cde Justice Mayor Wadyajena that sought to
establish their level of preparedness.
Sable Chemical Industries (Ltd) chief executive officer Mr
Bothwell Nyajeka said his company was ready for the season.
“Sable is the sole manufacturer of ammonium nitrate (AN)
fertiliser in Zimbabwe,” he said. “AN is a source of nitrogen, the most
important nutrient required in the growth of crops such as maize, cotton,
tobacco and wheat.
“Sable has the plant, capacity, and a team of 300
experienced people to produce a quality product for the country. We also
mobilised letter-of-credit facilities with our bankers. The only thing that we
do not have is timeous access to foreign currency to import our major raw
material, ammonia gas.’’
Mr Nyajeka urged the Government and other players not to
import fertiliser, but instead buy the product from his firm as a deliberate
measure to support local industry.
He said there was no reason to import fertiliser since
Sable Chemicals products were equally competitive.
Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company (ZFC) managing director Dr
Richard Dafana said his firm required $24 million to unlock raw materials under
“collateral management”.
“Right now we have stock of 25 000 tonnes of basal
fertilisers, 4 000 of higher analysis basal fertiliser and 30 000 of top
dressing fertilisers, so we are close to 60 000,” he said.
“Already, in the factory, this material is in two parts;
part of it is our own material that we have already started to supply and the
other part is material that is under collateral management (CMA). CMA is
material that we have produced, we have put some of the raw materials in and
part of the raw materials is supplied by our partners, so we have to pay
foreign currency before we get access to that raw material.
“We have started delivering fertiliser to the CBZ yield
scheme and by December we will have produced 123 000 tonnes of basal fertiliser
and 53 000 tonnes of top dressing.”
Fertiliser Seed Grain (FSG) managing director Mr Steve
Morland said they were ready and had already delivered inputs to the
Presidential Inputs Scheme.
“We have started delivering fertilisers to the Presidential
Inputs Scheme which are for maize and cotton and we are quite comfortable with
the numbers this season. The required tonnes between the two programmes is 172
000 tonnes and so far 22 000 tonnes have been delivered.
“Current deliveries are 600 tonnes – 900 tonnes per day at
our Bindura plant depending on the released raw materials on hand. We have over
70 000 tonnes of raw materials in the country, which is currently under CMA. We
also have high analysis fertiliser stock available for the commercial farmers,
but we need to get some nostro allocations to get this released into free
circulation.’’
Windmill Private Limited chief executive, Mr George
Rundogo, said the Government schemes had remained the major driver of their
business.
“Outside Government schemes, there is no business,” he
said. “So, if you do not get one of the Government projects then you are out of
the game.”
The Meteorologcial Services Department has said the first
half of the season will receive normal rains with a bias towards above normal,
while the second half will receive normal rains with a bias towards below
normal. Herald
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