eBusiness Weekly
Seed Co Zimbabwe is a producer and marketer of certified crop seeds in Zimbabwe, mainly hybrid maize seed, but also wheat, soya bean, barley, sorghum, and groundnut seed.
Most of the hybrid and non-hybrid cereals and oil crop seed varieties are proprietary, having been developed and bred at Seed Co research stations through market-oriented research and breeding programmes. The seed is produced from Seed Co’s own parent seed under contract by an established producer network.
The Company says innovation and novel breeding methods are responsible for the success in developing successful hybrid varieties such as SC 727 and SC719 recorded by the Art farm as the highest yielding variety across all national varieties in Zimbabwe.
The company claims yield records of 21 metric tonnes per hectare have been achieved with these varieties.
In its Trading Update for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, the company said the Covid-19 pandemic situation together with the slow onset of the rainfall season as well as fertiliser shortages had an adverse impact on farming activities and in particular seed uptake during the normal peak selling season.
Furthermore, Seed Co said the economic environment was characterised by the continued widening of the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates presenting pricing and value-preservation challenges to the Company.
In addition, high-interest rates, under the monetary policy regime aimed at containing local money supply, made the trading environment extremely difficult, added the Company.
In terms of performance, the company said sales volumes in Zimbabwe declined by 20 percent for the 9 month period and by 40 percent for the quarter mainly attributable to the late start of the rainfall season.
Maize and wheat seed sales volumes were 20 percent and 6 percent lower than prior year for the 9 months ended December 31, 2021 due to the slow uptake of seed in the wake of the late onset of rainfall season.
Revenue grew by 54 percent year to date and declined 32 percent during the quarter in historical cost terms.
