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Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter
A local handmade cigar producer, Mosi Oa Tunya Cigars is targeting to grow its exports as its brands are attracting interest in those markets.

Mosi Oa Tunya cigars are presently enjoying favourable market acceptance in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Africa and other neighbouring countries.

The founder of the brand, Mr Shepherd Mafundikwa said they plan to broaden their export market by tapping into the Russian and Belarus markets.

He said product samples have been approved by the Russians.

“We are also looking to Russia as a potential market and we have had interesting interactions with the Russian Embassy officials. We also had some delegation visiting our factory from Russia and there is indeed great interest in the product,” said Mr Mafundikwa.

“The samples that we have sent to that market have earned good reviews, so shortly we will be starting to export to Russia.”

He said feedback from Belarus is encouraging.

“We also had some interactions with business-people from Belarus and the feedback we got from the samples they took is pretty much good and they showed interest in our product, so that’s another market that we think we will soon be exploring.”

The firm has a distributor in the United Kingdom and a customer in Dubai where he said the reception is also positive.

“Because of our online visibility, we do get lots of interest from all over the world and so we send out samples and we are just waiting for that major breakthrough,” he said.

“Our target is 90 percent exports and 10 percent local. When we are busy supplying the export market, we also make progress on the local market as we are bringing import substitution.”

The company works with different sports clubs, hotels, and liquor supplies to distribute its product to the local market in Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.

Mr Mafundikwa said by using Mosi Oa Tunya as their brand name they were not promoting cigars only but Zimbabwe as a tourist destination.

Meanwhile, as the world celebrates Women’s Month, Mosi Oa Tunya Cigars has placed a central priority on promoting women’s empowerment as most of the staff in the company including administration and cigar making are women.

“Our intention when we started this company, we wanted to make it a women empowerment programme and we think we have successfully done that by doing skills transfer from the Caribbean to ensure that we have local women who are making cigars,” said Mr Mafundikwa.

“That’s a lifetime skill that they now possess, and these women can go to Cuba, Dominican Republic and work in a cigar factory and we are proud that we have given these women skills to make cigars, which have received reviews from all over the world.” —  @SikhulekelaniM1