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Manufacturers of stock feeds are engaging the Standards Association of Zimbabwe to raise the bar on the quality of products so as to secure export markets, an official said yesterday. Stock Feed Manufacturers Association of Zimbabwe chairman Fungayi Mungate said the move was meant to raise the grade of stock feeds in the country to meet international standards. “This is a key project for us for the next few months because we are targeting to develop into a stock feed exporting country in the near future,” he said.
Mr Mungate said the SFMAZ was targeting to produce at least 500 000 metric tones of stock feeds this year, up from 432 156 metric tonnes produced last year.

Local stock feed manufacturers have an installed capacity of between 600 000 metric tonnes and almost one million tonnes per year with only between 30 and 40 percent being utilised.
Mr Mungate said there was need to jealously guard the industry, which was in its infant stages.
“We seem to be the only country that does not jealously guard its infant industries,” he said.

High production costs due to antiquated machinery that local industries use as well as the liquidity crunch that the country is experiencing make locally produced stock feeds uncompetitive against imported products.

The Stock Feed Manufactures Association of Zimbabwe has been in existence since the 1990s, went into hibernation during much of the economic downturn in the country before being resuscitated in May 2007. – New Ziana.