eBusiness Weekly
Kudakwashe Mhundwa
Pipe manufacturing concern, Proplastics says it is optimistic about business performance as the firm is sitting on a strong order book largely underpinned by irrigation infrastructure projects.
Proplastics chief executive officer Kuda Chigiya told Business Weekly that Proplastics is positioning itself to cater for all the country’s irrigation requirements by doubling its production capacity. The company is also forging strategic partnerships with different players in the agriculture sector.
“On the irrigation front as Proplastics we have already increased our capacity and we are building a new factory, we are going to increase our equipment that are going to be housed in this factory. At the moment we are producing 5 000 tonnes per annum of which 30 percent of those 5 000 tonnes are going into irrigation and by building and constructing a new factory we are actually going to increase that tonnage to about 32 000 tonnes targeting the region and Zimbabwe as well.
“We are going to come up with smart partnerships between us, irrigation experts and also the Government that we supply all the infrastructure that is required for irrigation development, we are working already with the Government and irrigation companies to rehabilitate the old ARDA irrigation farms that have infrastructure that has been heavily dilapidated, we have already supplied some tonnage into those initiatives and after that we are looking at new piping infrastructure for irrigation,” said Chigiya.
He highlighted that the pipe manufacturing concern is sitting on orders from the Government of about RTGS$6,5 million.
“I will give you confirm irrigation projects in terms of value at the department of irrigation, we are sitting with confirmed orders of about RTGS$5 million of piping material that they require, then with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) we are looking at about RTGS$1,5 million for the piping equipment.
“In terms of supply, at the moment with ZINWA we have actually completed deliveries, with the department of irrigation we have got the Bulawayo crawl were we have supplied about 30 percent the materials and now we are looking at the logistics of doing tor production with department of irrigation,” said Chigiya.
Government through the District Development Fund (DDF), committed funds towards the resuscitation of irrigation projects under the National Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development programme.
Under the programme, DDF is expected to revamp 2 000 hectares of irrigable land per year in each district.
