Zimbabwe President opens US$1m fruit, vegetable processing plant in Rural Mutoko

By Lawrence Paganga

Zimbabwe President, Emmerson Mnangagwa last Thursday opened a US$1 million fruit and vegetable processing plant in rural Mutoko district, Mashonaland East province.

The new processing plant is expected to add value to horticultural produce grown by the local market. The local farmers used to travel to Harare to sell their farming produce covering a distance of over 200km to Harare.

Mnangagwa said the new plant would save the rural farmers, costs in transport to Harare and back.

He also promised his government would inject more resources into rural development.

“In the past, every child in the rural areas would aspire to go to Harare or other areas in search of employment. We want to remove that mindset,” Mnangagwa told hundreds of rural farmers gathered for the opening of the processing plant at the Tabudirira Vocational Training Centre.

“We need people to work from their localities. This is rural development. That is the objective, we have as the Second Republic.”

The project was funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and Empowerment Bank, a local financial institution.

AfDB Zimbabwe country representative Moono Mupotola at the launch pledged the financial institution would provide a further US$3,5 million funding that includes the upgrading of the Mutoko processing plant and other rural development projects.

One Mutoko farmer, Clayton Mandebvu said he was excited by the opening of the processing plant.

“I am happy as I never dreamt that one day we would have a ready market for our produce. I am into horticulture. We used to hire trucks to deliver our tomatoes to Harare. The hired truck owners would charge us a lot of money such that we were left with nothing to expand or farming businesses,” Mandebvu said.