AGRO-PROCESSING concern, United Refineries Limited (URL) says the liquidity crisis has made it impossible to bring in sufficient raw materials, resulting in the company failing to meet demand for cooking oil.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
In the past few weeks, NewsDay conducted a survey in Bulawayo, which revealed that a number of supermarkets, which used to stock large quantities of Roil –URL’s cooking oil brand – had no product in their shelves.
Contacted for comment, URL chief executive officer, Busisa Moyo said they have been facing challenges of the liquidity crisis, which made it difficult for them to bring in raw materials to meet demand.
“The Roil brand is increasing in popularity. We have increased capacity, but our challenges have been the liquidity crisis, which means we cannot bring in sufficient raw materials to meet demand,” he said.
“Some retailers underestimate the positive impact of bond notes and the increased demand and did not give adequate indication of order levels for the festive season,” he said.
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The country has been facing challenges in making foreign payments, as banks’ nostro accounts are depleted and the central bank is working towards stabilising them.
Moyo said they were working together with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Finance ministry to “ensure cooking oil supplies in the southern parts of Zimbabwe, Midlands, Matabeleland and Masvingo are adequate and so far the responses have been positive”.
He said the cooking oil-manufacturing sector performed well in 2016, as evidenced by the entry of new players such as Willowton.
This means local capacity is now beyond demand and exports to regional market are imminent, he said.
Recently, Willowton Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of South Africa-based Willowton Group set up its $40 million plant in Mutare.
The group manufactures a wide range of products, which include edible oils, margarine and spreads, toiletries, laundry and bathing soaps, candles, chocolates, baking and industrial fats.
Oil producers in Zimbabwe have a capacity to supply 12 000 tonnes of cooking oil per month sufficient to meet the local demand of 10 000 tonnes.
URL has 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 includes 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.