The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
MANICALAND continues to make momentous strides in luring investment for the value addition and beneficiation of its vast natural resource base, with the latest offing being the US$1 million baobab juice fruit plant at Mutare Teachers’ College.
The juice manufacturing plant, whose full installation was completed and started operations a fortnight ago, is tentatively expected to be officially commissioned by President Mnangagwa on December 14.
The plant is an investment that dovetails well with the country’s Education 5.0 Policy — which is meant to equip students with practical skills and improve rural livelihoods by sourcing an assortment of raw materials locally.
Apart from the baobab juice, which is the main product earmarked for the project, the hybrid plant, imported from China, will also process other fruits such as loquat, mango, guava, lemon and pineapple, as well as bottled water.
The project was funded through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and its successful installation marks yet another milestone by the Second Republic in its quest to accelerate Manicaland’s economic development and improve its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The baobab juice manufacturing plant follows hard on the heels of the establishment of other massive industrial plants — among them the Oxygen and Acetylene Gas Plant at Feruka, Willowton Margarine Plant and the multi-million dollar flour milling plant at Mega Market in Mutare, which have contributed significantly to the creation of employment, especially for graduates in the food science and manufacturing sectors in the province.
The plant is also empowering rural communities that supply the raw materials.
Special Advisor to the President on Monitoring Implementation of Government Programmes and Projects, Dr Joram Gumbo toured the 2 000-litre per hour production plant on Wednesday.
Dr Gumbo was taken around the plant which has a cooling section, an automated filling and capping section which operates without human interference, a bottle blowing machine, a cap sorter, buffer tanks, water storage tanks, purifying components, an inverted conveyor, mixing tanks and laminating sections at the exit points.
Dr Gumbo spoke highly of the project’s life transforming impetus that also reflects positively on the implementation of Education 5.0 Policy and Government’s rural industrialisation drive.
“In this area (Mutare), we are witnessing the beneficiation of mauyu (baobab) and other fruits that are found abundantly in Manicaland. The fruits are being processed and bottled at this plant.
‘‘This has created employment for the rural communities and graduates. The operations here allows for the transfer of skills to our local people in our quest to attain Vision 2030.
“This is in fulfilment of President Mnangagwa’s vision that local resources should be utilised for the benefit of local communities. We have a variety of fruits here in Manicaland that can now be commercially harvested, sold and processed at this plant, resultantly improving the livelihoods of the people.
“This product (baobab juice) is actually excellent and is very rich in many aspects. It has some medicinal properties that are good for the health. This is what our forefathers used to enjoy,” said Dr Gumbo.
Mutare Teachers’ College principal, Mr Abson Mutubuki said the market is responding well to the new juice that has less than two weeks on local shop shelves.
He said they have about 67 000 metric tonnes of baobab in stock, sourced from Buhera, Marange, Chipinge and Chimanimani.
“We completed the installation of the juice making plant about two weeks ago, having invested almost U$1 million into the project. There will be nine flavours that will be produced at the plant. We will also produce bottled water.
“We think that the variety of flavours will help us penetrate the market and leave a huge footprint. The initial response from the market is massive. We have started operations and are ready to compete on the market.
“The availability of raw materials is not a challenge as baobab fruits are largely abundant in all areas of Manicaland. As we speak, we have in excess of 67 000 tonnes of raw materials available at the college.
“There are also other fruits like guava, bananas, lemons and pineapples that are also readily available in Manicaland, we can use all those,” he said.
Dr Gumbo also toured Willowton Magarine Plant yesterday (Thursday).
