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Zimbabwe: Firms Start Rolling Out Fertilizer
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
7 August 2008
Posted to the web 7 August 2008
Harare
Companies have started rolling out fertilizer with about 700 tonnes having been released by the Zimbabwe Fertilizer Company to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and other customers during the past week.
Zimbabwe Fertilizer Company's corporate communications manager, Mrs Monica Mutuma said they had so far dispatched about 700 tonnes of fertilizer.
Of this amount, she said, 450 tonnes was handed over to the RBZ and the rest was sold to other customers.
She added that their production capacity was about 70 percent from one manufacturing plant.
"In the coming week we expect to dispatch about 600 tonnes and this will be mainly for RBZ," she said.
Fertilizer is a key input during and after planting crops.
The fertilizer industry recently got a timely boost from the RBZ which allocated foreign currency to the industry to enable it to produce on a toll manufacturing arrangement.
The industry was initially allocated US$10 million last month before the central bank made an additional allocation of US$3 million a week ago.
The industry was also expected to get a similar allocation of US$3 million this week.
In his mid-year monetary policy statement, Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono had indicated that they were aiming to provide the industry with US$10 million every month, which would enable it to operate at full capacity and meet the country's demand.
The national requirements for fertilizer stand at 560 000 tonnes per year and with an allocation of US$10 million, the industry can produce about 25 000 tonnes of fertilizer monthly.
Fertilizer production started this week following the delivery of 1000 tonnes of superphosphate by Zimphos to Zimbabwe Fertilizer Company and Windmill.
Fertilizer companies were expected to increase production gradually to a rate of 1 250 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 3 000 tonnes of compound D per week.
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Prior to the injection of US$10 million the industry had been operating at 20 percent capacity and had managed to produce only 160 000 tonnes per year due to several challenges.
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