Pure Oil rejuvenates sunflower farming

Local sunflower processing company, Pure Oil Industries is reigniting sunflower farming by contracting communal farmers.

The producers of popular cooking oil brand, Zimgold, have contracted 100 000 farmers who are planting 107 000 hectares. This surpasses the 100 000 hectare target set by government.

“The Russia-Ukraine war has impacted on the availability of raw material, hence our response by targeting to put huge tracts of land under the crop. Sunflower is an important crop in edible oil production, hence the need to increase its production,” said the Pure Oil supply chain manager.

Zimbabwe is on the road to self-sufficiency in food production with enough wheat for 2023 already harvested. The country is also targeting to produce sufficient maize for its needs.

While local capacity and utilisations have gone up in the oil processing industry, the sector has been heavily reliant on imported raw materials, thus diluting its import replacement impact.

According to the second-round Crop and Livestock Assessment Report for the 2020/2021 season, estimated production was at 14 000 tonnes.

This is very low compared to production levels of 60 000 tonnes per year, which the country has previously reached.

Improved seed varieties, technological advancements and better farming methods should make it very possible for Zimbabwe to far outstrip previous harvest records.

Zimbabwe needs 150 million litres of cooking oil per annum and this translates to between 50 000 tonnes and 70 000 tonnes of oil seed annually, according to statistics.

Sunflower seed has higher oil concentration than the alternatives of soya and cotton.

Pure Oil is targeting to increase production to 60 000 litres of oil daily and assured supply of oil seed from the contracted farmers will minimise effects of external factors such as world trade disruptions by the Covid-19.

At the current average market price of US$500 per tonne, farmers will benefit from having another crop option since sunflower is more drought resistant and less labour and cost intensive than other cash crops like tobacco and cotton.