Dendairy operations impress Belarus delegation

MODERN technology and fully-automated packaging equipment at Kwekwe-based dairy company, Dendairy, yesterday impressed the delegation of Government officials and the visiting Belarusian team, which has pledged more support to the company to ensure it attains maximum capacity.

The company’s top-notch operations were part of the attractions during the tour by the Belarus delegation, which is in the country to follow up on a number of agreements that were signed during a State visit by their leader, President Aleksandr Lukashenko, in February.

After meeting President Mnangagwa on Wednesday, the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Leonid Zayats, embarked on a tour of some agricultural projects across the country.

The delegation has already conducted a tour of Nestle and Dairibord in the capital, and yesterday it visited Doreen’s Pride in Kadoma and Dendairy Farm and Dendairy Plant in Kwekwe.

The team also had an appreciation of President Mnangagwa’s farming efforts at his Precab Farm in Kwekwe. Mr Zayats said he was impressed by what he saw at Dendairy, which is operating at 30 percent capacity as it slowly recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Mnangagwa

“It’s a state-of-the-art enterprise, which produces the best milk for consumers. We have seen fully-automated modern technology, one of the best packaging equipment, which very few people have here. That’s why we believe the quality of the product is very high,” he said.

“We would propose to contribute to this enterprise and add some new equipment in some other parts of the country.

“But what is also needed is to develop agriculture, which provides raw milk to such enterprises. We know that the company is operating at 30 percent capacity, they need more raw milk and Belarus can help in production of more raw milk needed to make the company attain full capacity,” said Mr Zayats.

Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Vangelis Haritatos, said there is a lot of co-operation between the two countries adding that Zimbabwe needs to tap into what Belarus has on offer to attain milk self-sufficiency.

“You can tell what level of relationship we have with Belarus and we now need to tap into their superior genetics, technology, and expertise and if we blend everything together, we will be able to close the deficiency we currently have,” he said.

Deputy Minister Haritatos said the dairy sector was facing raw milk shortages, which hampers the sector’s growth of which Belarus can play a key role.

“So far, we have toured a number of dairy companies across the country and raw milk is in short supply. We need to ensure that we utilise our operations to full capacity as you can see that Dendairy is operating only at 30 percent,” he said.

“We need to close the deficit and help local companies produce at full capacity and we start exporting.”

Dendairy executive director, Mr Daryl Archibald, said the company was still smarting from the effects of the pandemic and was still struggling to get the products into the market.

“We have a capacity of producing about 10 million litres of product per month that is ranging from ice cream, fruit juice, fermented milk and milk but currently we are producing between three million and 3,5 million litres per month.

“It’s just about getting our products back into the market given the tumultuous time we are coming from,” he said.

“We need raw materials from Belarus. Currently we have some material that we are getting from other countries and we can have samples and if they pass our quality test, we can redirect them to Belarus.”

Already, there is increased trade between the two countries, particularly in the field of agriculture where Belarus has so far supplied more than 2 000 pieces of agricultural equipment with more than 3 500 tractors on their way.

With the support, Zimbabwe has made significant strides towards achieving food security that has reduced the country’s import bill.-chronice