THE Belarusian government has laid out plans to increase its provision of agricultural machinery to Zimbabwe, owing to demand for the equipment, NewsDay Business heard this week.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe-Belarus Business Forum on Monday in Harare, Belarusian Industry deputy minister Dimtry Kharitonchik said their agricultural machinery will continue to be available on the Zimbabwean market.
“We are happy to hear positive feedback from the customers of our agricultural machinery. I am confident that the wide range of Belarusian agricultural machinery products will be of great interest to the future consumers of agricultural machinery products,” he said.
“It will continue to be on demand on the Zimbabwean markets and will also allow us to increase efficiency of agriculture in Zimbabwe as part of the mechanisation programme.”
According to the Belarusian official, to date, Belarus has delivered 18 000 tractors and 80 combine harvesters as part of a mechanisation programme to support farmers.
The official added that the third part of the programme had begun, and it involved more than 3 000 tractors and harvesters for next year.
Commenting on the same issue, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Small-to-Medium Enterprises representative Lucky Moyo said the equipment was vital in the agricultural sector.
He called for experts in advanced technology to join Zimbabwe and manufacture agricultural equipment.
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Moyo noted that partnerships in tobacco contract farming and exports would be of great importance considering the good and fertile soil in the country.
He also urged Belarus to partner small and medium enterprises in the clothing sector.
“The truth is going out there from our cities and towns there are a lot of shops and 90% if not 99% of clothing is mostly imported,” Moyo said.
“We are inviting Belarus to open clothing factories such that we can sell our foreign goods and export. We are into manufacturing leather products as per province; we invite you to partner our SMEs.”
During a State visit by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko last year, several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed between Belarus and Zimbabwe.
Among them, was a MoU between the Lands, Fisheries, Agriculture, Water and Rural Development ministry and the Belarus Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus ministry on co-operation in the field of agriculture.
