Automated plant boosts flour production

Diversified agro-industrial concern, National Foods Limited (NFL), has said the newly established flour milling plant in Bulawayo has seen an improvement in capacity utilisation from about 200 tonnes to 300 tonnes of wheat milled a day.

National Foods installed a state-of-the-art US$6,5 million flour milling plant in Bulawayo, an investment that took the company about two years to finalise.

Last week, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce toured the facility during the industry tour, in preparation for the upcoming Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.

With the plant having run for about a year and a half now, National Foods Southern Region operations executive Mr Ngqabutho Moyo, said their efficiency has also improved, with the plant being fully automated.

“The plant has been running for about a year and a half now, we have found that our efficiencies have greatly improved as compared to what we had with the old plant,” said Mr Moyo.

“The capacity of this plant is 300 tonnes of wheat milled per day, so we run it 24 hours, depending on the market size at the moment. The capacity of the silos is 11 000 tonnes of wheat, which translates to about 36 to 40 days of milling.”

Mr Moyo elaborated that a fully automated plant will reduce human interface, which poses some risks of contamination.

He said the plant also moves in line with global trends, where the use of automated machinery has become a game changer in improving capacity and efficiency.

National Foods has invested millions in setting up state-of-the-art processing plants to replace old mills and ramp up production in the country.

Since 2022, the company has invested about US$30 million into hi-tech plants, replacing the 72-year-old mill to ramp up production by more than 2 000 tonnes, and other plants in Harare.

This comes as the NFL is celebrating 103 years since establishing operations in Zimbabwe.

The company produces human and livestock feed that has become part of every Zimbabwean household throughout the century.

In an interview during the tour, Ministry of Industry and Commerce Permanent Secretary, Dr Thomas Utete Wushe said the ministry is impressed with the new plant at National Foods, which moves in line with global trends.

Dr Thomas Utete Wushe

He said having a company investing about US$6,5 million shows how confident National Foods is in this economy.

“I’m excited, I have seen the transformation from around 200 tonnes to 300 tonnes production a day and also, more exciting is the realisation that this plant is achieving up to 90 percent capacity utilisation. This is a significant improvement, looking at the national average capacity utilisation, which is currently sitting at 52 percent,” said Dr Wushe.

“We want to see more of the National Foods plants as far as national capacity utilisation is concerned.”

Meanwhile, Dr Wushe said the Government, through the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, is engaging industries to upgrade and retool with the national blueprint, stating the need for companies to move in line with global trends.

“We are also encouraging the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to produce current skills that align with the new level of upgraded machinery,” said Dr Wushe.

“This is why we are here, to ensure that the country is ready for retooling through upskilling and getting our graduates out of university with the required skills that align with what is happening in the industry.”-chroncile