Cigar producer seeks to broaden export market
Zimbabwe’s top tobacco producer CEO Mr Shep Mafundikwa has launched the first local brand of hand-rolled cigars, defying coronavirus and economic odds to light up manufacturing.
A local handmade cigar producer, Mosi Oa Tunya Cigars is targeting to grow its exports
as its brands are attracting interest in those markets.
Mosi Oa Tunya cigars are presently enjoying favourable market acceptance in Angola,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Africa and other neighbouring countries.
The founder of the brand, Mr Shepherd Mafundikwa said they plan to broaden their
export market by tapping into the Russian and Belarus markets.
He said product samples have been approved by the Russians.
“We are also looking to Russia as a potential market and we have had interesting
interactions with the Russian Embassy officials. We also had some delegation visiting our
factory from Russia and there is indeed great interest in the product,” said Mr
Mafundikwa.
“The samples that we have sent to that market have earned good reviews, so shortly we
will be starting to export to Russia.”
He said feedback from Belarus is encouraging.
“We also had some interactions with business-people from Belarus and the feedback we
got from the samples they took is pretty much good and they showed interest in our
product, so that’s another market that we think we will soon be exploring.”
The firm has a distributor in the United Kingdom and a customer in Dubai where he said
the reception is also positive.
“Because of our online visibility, we do get lots of interest from all over the world and so
we send out samples and we are just waiting for that major breakthrough,” he said.
“Our target is 90 percent exports and 10 percent local. When we are busy supplying the
export market, we also make progress on the local market as we are bringing import substitution.”
The company works with different sports clubs, hotels, and liquor supplies to distribute
its product to the local market in Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.
Mr Mafundikwa said by using Mosi Oa Tunya as their brand name they were not
promoting cigars only but Zimbabwe as a tourist destination.
Meanwhile, as the world celebrates Women’s Month, Mosi Oa Tunya Cigars has placed a
central priority on promoting women’s empowerment as most of the staff in the
company including administration and cigar making are women.
“Our intention when we started this company, we wanted to make it a women
empowerment programme and we think we have successfully done that by doing skills
transfer from the Caribbean to ensure that we have local women who are making cigars,”
said Mr Mafundikwa.
“That’s a lifetime skill that they now possess, and these women can go to Cuba,
Dominican Republic and work in a cigar factory and we are proud that we have given
these women skills to make cigars, which have received reviews from all over the world.”
— The Chronicle
