Zimbabwe - Overseas Development Institute

increase throughput and i n s t a l l i n g a wider range of more modern
c a p i t a l equipment - have provided the company with most of the
t e c h n i c a l i n g r e d i e n t s necessary to produce high q u a l i t y export
products. A j o i n t marketing strategy with other companies,
marketing under a j o i n t l a b e l i s also under c o n s i d e r a t i o n . As
for the raw m a t e r i a l supply problems, although these are by no
means a l l solved, the expansion of i r r i g a t i o n f a c i l i t i e s ,
increased pest c o n t r o l , a f a r greater r e a l i s a t i o n amongst farmers
that d i v e r s i f i c a t i o n to t h i s type of farming can be h i g h l y
p r o f i t a b l e ' 1 " and greater s p e c i a l i s a t i o n to a smaller range of
products have a l l a s s i s t e d them overcoming t h i s c o n s t r a i n t . I t
also seems l i k e l y that l o c a l high q u a l i t y p e c t i n w i l l soon be
produced to replace imports. F i n a l l y , there i s an increased
awareness among management that there i s a huge p o t e n t i a l for
export expansion, even i f awareness has also grown of the
i n t e r n a t i o n a l competition'''. Greatest a t t e n t i o n i s being
focussed on a range of high value products, i n c l u d i n g asparagus,
t r o p i c a l f r u i t j u i c e s and jam pulps (guavas, mangoes, grenadi
l l a s ) and, with tomatoes, canned t r o u t . What i s more, container
loads of these products to Europe have r e c e n t l y been exported'''.
That s u b s t a n t i a l progress has been made over the past few
years to address the c o n s t r a i n t s i n h i b i t i n g exports i s borne out
by recent trade s t a t i s t i c s . In 1985, the exports of jams wwere
valued at $48,000, compared with $2,000 i n 1983, while f r u i t
j u i c e exports i n 1986 were valued at $1.1 mn compared with
$22,000 i n 1983. By 1988, canned guavas were appearing r e g u l a r l y
on supermarket shelves i n B r i t a i n ' ' ' .
For these food manufacturers, however, and indeed f o r the
whole of the manufacturing sector, other c o n s t r a i n t s e x i s t at
present which need, f i n a l l y , to be mentioned. Foreign exchange
shortages f o r c a p i t a l equipment and spares are not only i n h i b i t ­
ing current exports but, more fundamentally, they are slowing
down - and i n some cases preventing - the process of adjustment
and change needed to adapt plant and equipment to create or
extend longer term competitiveness. The food industry i s
p a r t i c u l a r l y a f f e c t e d by the p e r i o d i c , and growing, shortage of
tin-cans and the v a r i a b l e q u a l i t y of the cans which Metal Box i s
c u r r e n t l y manufacturing. Importantly, too, a noticeably slower
speed of bureaucratic decision-making i s becoming a major
handicap to both i n d u s t r i a l e f f i c i e n c y and i n p a r t i c u l a r to
securing export orders p r e c i s e l y at a time when the speed of
decision-making needs to increase with the commitment to increase
exposure to the export market. Not only do these delays lead to
p o t e n t i a l export orders being l o s t but i t has already l e d to
s u b s t a n t i a l losses of current exports. To take one example from
the experience of Super Canners, p r i o r to o b t a i n i n g permission to
import beef from I r e l a n d the f a c t o r y stood completely i d l e for
three months, i n c u r r i n g a loss to the n a t i o n a l economy of f o r e i g n
exchange amounting to close to $4 mn. The problem i s simply
t o l d : Super Canners had r e a l i s e d w e l l i n time that the Cold
Storage Commission would be unable to supply i t with a l l i t s beef
requirements some months hence. However i n s p i t e of g i v i n g p r i o r
warning of the impending shortage of domestic beef, permission