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Harare — Nestlé Zimbabwe has been asked to reopen its factory after assurances were given by the Government over the safety of staff and agreement was reached over how milk from Gushungo Dairies will be processed.
In a statement yesterday, Industry and Commerce Minister Professor Welshman Ncube said he had held consultations with Nestlé Zimbabwe, Gushungo Dairies and other "key stakeholders in the dairy sector".
"As a result of those consultations, the parties have collectively reached an understanding to work together in ensuring that milk produced at Gushungo Dairies is absorbed by the local dairy processors.
"For its part, Government has given its assurance on the safety of staff and management at both Nestlé Zimbabwe and Gushungo Dairies," said the statement.
While no details of the "understanding" were made public, it appears that milk from Gushungo, which is owned by the First Family, will go into the general pool of milk processed by Dairibord and others and that Nestlé will buy its requirements from that pool.
Minister Ncube said he had been asked to intervene in the dispute by both President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after Nestlé's Zurich head office said it was temporarily closing its Zimbabwe factory after two managers were questioned by police and the factory was forced to buy a tanker of milk from a "non-contracted" source.
On Wednesday during a Press conference by the three principals to the Global Political Agreement to review the operations of the inclusive Government since its formation early this year, PM Tsvangirai said: "Shutting down the plant is an overreaction that is totally unnecessary," he said.
Nestlé head office in Zurich had issued a statement saying that it was temporarily closing its Zimbabwe factory "since . . . normal operations and the safety of employees are no longer guaranteed".
The company said, in its statement through AFP, that on Saturday the factory was visited by Zimbabwean "officials" and police, and forced to accept a tanker of non-contracted milk. Two managers were questioned by police but were released without charge after questioning the same day.
The company said its Zimbabwe subsidiary stopped buying milk from non-contracted farmers in October when normal supplies resumed from Daribord.
It had started buying direct in February this year as a temporary measure to ensure food supplies when Dairibord could no longer pay farmers but had then returned to its normal system.
However, Nestlé had been under pressure from Western activists to stop buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estates, a business owned by the First Family and which was supplying up to 15 percent of the factory's milk, and from at least seven other new farmers.
The reason of switching back to Dairibord was not accepted by Zimbabwean pressure groups, who saw the move as an imposition of sanctions on the eight new farmers.
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OK.
Why should we be bothered? Why is this news?
Why should ZIM government be upstaged by one foreign company - of the foreigners that starve Zimbabwe's kids to death?
Can't Zimbabweans proces teir own milk? How long would it take ZIM to train and build its own milk processing plants? Surely it is not as if ZIM relies exclusively on foreign markets for its processed milk.
The Japanese can do it. So can the Chinese. Intelligence and capability are NOT geographically biased. The equipment can be bought on the global markets.
If, after years of the rhodie denigration, ZIM has yet to train a cadre of native manpower capablre of taking over the operations and management of tjis plant, then isn't tit time to look alsewhere?
Do we need a third Chimurenga?
Go East, My Son
Yes Chokora, people all over the world do process their own milk. If they don't have a history of it they start with joint ventures with established businesses, learn from them, then develop thier own processors. That's what the Chinese have done with the likes of New Zealand's Fonterra. What they don't do is invoke an imaginary revolution to justify theft with violence.
" What they don't do is invoke an imaginary revolution "
The Chinese?
Maybe after a few years of growing up, you will rethink that sentence ..
chokora well once again you show your true ignorance in the words you write the only people responsible for starving the children of Zimbabwe is the government of Zimbabwe no one outside of Zim controls that but the leadership of Zimbabwe.
Zanu-pf has shown one thing is that they can steal farms for their own greedy profit but outside that zanu-pf and mugabe have no clue how to run a country...
Bloodmilk diluted into a pool is still bloodmilk. Nestle will see a dramatic global sales drop because of this.
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