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Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Leather Cluster will next week open a shoe manufacturing factory in the city with a capacity to produce about 158 400 pairs of shoes annually.

In an interview on the sidelines of a cluster development workshop held in Bulawayo yesterday, the cluster’s secretary Mr Fungai Zvinondiramba said the factory which is expected to open next week, will employ 125 people.

He said equipment for the new factory was provided by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and it arrived in the country last October.

Mr Zvinondiramba said work to install the machines and equipment had started.

He said the project to set up the factory was expected to cost about $ 100 000.

“We are targeting school shoes and safety wear for the mining industry,” said Mr Zvinondiramba.

Meanwhile, Agri Academy South Africa, managing director Ms Lina Keyter urged farmers to embrace the clustering method in order to break into bigger markets.

Clustering involves farmers organising themselves into well-structured groups in order for them to work together across a particular value                          chain.

She said if implemented properly, clustering has the potential to increase production and grow Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector.

“Farmers working in a cluster take advantage of the economies of scale to boost production and expand their markets,” said Ms Keyter
Mindpower Consulting in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology’s fibre and polymer materials engineering department and the Bulawayo Leather Cluster, organised the workshop that was attended by stakeholders from different sectors across the leather value chain. – @PrinceNkosy102