Firm embraces Govt’s value addition thrust

DIVERSIFIED local firm, Raymeg Consultants, continues to embrace the Government’s value addition thrust after recently introducing rabbit biltong, a first for the country.

The company has interests in strategic communication, farming, retail and real estate sectors.

The Government is on record calling all stakeholders in farming to invest more in value addition of both crop and livestock value chains to boost the overall performance of the agriculture sector which is expected to grow to a US$13,75 billion industry by next year.

In 2021, the sector hit the initial target of US$8,2 billion underpinned by improved productivity and production across all the sub-sectors.

Raymeg executive director Mrs Paidamoyo Nyamakanga, whose organisation was formed a few years ago, said they have decided to continue on a vertical integration opening rabbit grills where a variety of rabbit meat dishes are served.

“We then decided to also value-add rabbit meat products and we started off by making rabbit meat pies, rabbit sausage rolls and rabbit sausages.

“We have different kinds of flavours and rabbit polony which is the first of its kind globally and now we are making rabbit biltong the first of its kind in Zimbabwe yet again — we have not had countries that are making rabbit biltong throughout the world,” she said.

“So, we are excited to be part of this rabbit industry growth; we see a lot of potential in this industry and encourage farmers to raise rabbits,” she said.

At present, Raymeg, a corporate member of the Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (ZICORBA), has 5 000 pure breed rabbits in stock.

“And we also have a number of farmers throughout the country who are raising rabbits on our behalf — we then went on to establish a rabbit abattoir which has a capacity to slaughter 3 500 rabbits in an eight-hour shift,” said Mrs Nyamakanga.

In 2021, the firm scored a first, constructing a US$1 million abattoir in Harare with a view to slaughter rabbits from across the country for both local and export markets.

Agriculture is one of Zimbabwe’s major economic centrepieces providing a living to the largest groups of Zimbabweans, as well as the food required by everyone and the raw materials for industry.

The sector is also one of the critical pillars anchoring the country towards an upper middle-income society by 2030.

And to attain the envisaged national vision, value addition continues to take centre stage across all the priority value chains in sectors that include agriculture and manufacturing.
-herald