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Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
THE country’s sole yeast manufacturer, Lesaffre Zimbabwe, has started exports to Zambia following a massive refurbishment exercise the firm undertook last year.

In 2015, French firm Sociètè Industrielle Lesaffre (Lesaffre), a global leader in the manufacture of yeast and fermentation products with a presence in over 180 countries, acquired a 60 percent stake in Zimbabwe’s Anchor Yeast.

The deal revived the firm which was facing closure at the time.

Last year, Lesaffre injected over $3 million in fresh capital and new equipment to raise production capacity at its Gweru plant by over 50 percent.

Lesaffre Zimbabwe General manager, Mr Bernard Laguerre, said the company has started exports to Zambia and is looking at penetrating other markets in the region.

“We embarked on a refurbishment exercise during the second half of last year which resulted in us increasing the capacity of our factory.

“We started exporting to Zambia in December                 soon after we completed our refurbishment                                     exercise and we are now looking at exporting to other countries in the region like Mozambique and                 Malawi.”

Lesaffre is targeting setting aside 30 percent of its total production for the export market this year and will be exporting 40 percent of its output by 2018 during which time it envisages having tripled current production levels.

The refurbishment exercise saw output rising to 9 000 tonnes of yeast per annum from 5 000 tonnes per annum when Lesaffre took over operations.

Part of the retooling exercise involved the setting up of a water treatment plant at the Gweru factory.

The water treatment greatly reduced the cost of water for Lesaffre as the company is now  treating its own water following the installation of a water pump by Gweru City Council at Ngamo Dam.

This has resulted in the yeast manufacturer receiving uninterrupted raw water supplies.

Lesaffre consumes 400 000 litres of water per day, a key component in the manufacture of yeast.

— @lavuzigara1