Firm sets up edible oil refinery in Francistown
Brian Benza | Friday November 7, 2014 13:22
Through an equity partnership with local consortium, URL is setting up a cooking oil plant that has the capacity to produce 1,500 metric tonnes per month.
“This will be a refinery serving the Botswana market. Eventually when there is enough oilseeds in Botswana we will have a crushing plant as well.
“We aim to commence in the first quarter of 2015.
“The raw materials will be from South Africa and Zimbabwe depending on which is cheaper from time to time,” URL managing director Busisa Moyo told BusinessWeek.
The refinery is initially expected to employ up to 80 workers.
The company will only manufacture cooking oil under the brand name ‘HoneyGold’.
In Zimbabwe the company’s products include Roil Cooking Oil, Sunshine Cooking Oil and image soap.
According to the company, there are also plans in place to engage contract farmers in the Pandamatenga area in an effort to secure supplies of raw materials.
“The second phase of the project will look to growing sunflower seeds and soya beans in Pandamatenga and similar areas suitable for crop farming,” he said.
United Refineries Limited is the second largest cooking oil refinery in Zimbabwe and has a refining capacity of 8,000 metric tonnes of oil seeds per month.
The company has, however, been reported to be an acquisition target of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed shipping and freight logistics group GrindrodLtd’s trading division, a transaction management has remained tight-lipped about.
Grindrod Trading is a subsidiary of Grindrod Limited, a JSE-listed South African-based holding company involved in the movement of cargo by road, rail, sea and air.
Grindrod Limited, which bought Botswana oil firm Petrologistics a few years ago, operates four divisions - shipping, trading, financial services and freight services.
In an interview with The Source Moyo said the company was looking to revive exports, which would also increase its capacity utilisation.
“We are working on re-opening new markets for our cooking oil and soap in countries like Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and plans are at an advanced stage,” said Moyo.