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Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE-based dairy milk processor, Dendairy, is seeking partnerships with local companies to package long life shelf products on their behalf. Dendairy is not fully utilising its capacity at its Kwekwe plant since the company commissioned a new TetraPak plant a few weeks ago. The milk processor invested $3,5 million into the new plant to boost the company’s capacity to process between four to six million litres of milk per month, which is about 70 percent of the country’s dairy requirements.

Darren Coetzee, the company’s managing director, told Chronicle Business that Dendairy is willing to go into a joint venture or other partnership arrangements so that it can fully utilise its capacity. “At the moment we are looking at other industries locally that we can partner with. We can pack other companies’ products that are currently being done outside the country.

“We can package long life milk products and fruit juices and we are looking for a partnership or joint venture with such companies so that we can do it for them,” he said. Turning to the importation of dairy products packaging, Coetzee said there is a need for the central bank to treat the company as an import priority in order for it to be able to purchase packaging for long life shelf products from Europe.

He said failure by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to pay for long life shelf packaging products will result in the company scaling down its operations. Said Coetzee: “Our long life shelf packaging comes from Europe as there is no local manufacturer who can make such products.

“The challenge is that if the central bank does not pay for that packaging, we will come to a grinding halt. It is imperative that the Reserve Bank (of Zimbabwe) looks at us as a priority to getting that paid so that we get our packaging and we continue to grow.”

In 2013, Dendairy became the first Zimbabwe dairy processor to set up a Tetra Pak plant, which manufactures long life shelf dairy products such as long life milk and fruit juices.

Dendairy followed up the investment in July 2014 when the company commissioned two Tetra Pak plants which produce 100ml and 200ml milk sachets for long life shelf milk targeted at the hospitality sector where demand for milk packaged in small quantities is high.