20 Nov 2024

The Managing Director of Schweppes Holding Africa, Mr Charles Msipa has said Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited is set to establish a citrus farm and juice processing business in Botswana within the next six months.

“Our target is to break ground by planting the first batch of citrus plants in Botswana within that period. We have visited a new citrus establishment, the Selebi-Phikwe Citrus Project and the site where we will establish our own farm is also not very far from Selebi-Phikwe. “It is near Dikgathong Dam,”he said.

Mr Msipa said they are in the process of securing the lease of the 1 000ha green field to establish the citrus farm plantation. “

We hope to break ground in six months time,” said Mr Msipa.  

He said the company has a beverage manufacturing and citrus juice processing business.

“It is our intention to establish citrus production as well as citrus juice processing in Botswana,” he said.

In an interview after a tour of the Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited manufacturing plant in Harare by the Minister of International Relations, Dr Phenyo Butale, Mr Msipa said the company manufacturerd beverages being cordials of Mazoe, a range of juices under the Coca Cola brand Minute Maid and bottled water under Bonaqua water brand.

Mr Msipa said the business is predominantly based in Zimbabwe with some exports of beverage products within the region.

“We are limited in what we can do in Zimbabwe. We have an opportunity in Botswana to establish a 1 000ha citrus plant.

He said there is no significant juice processing and producing plant currently in Botswana, therefore it is an opportunity for them to participate in both the citrus production and value addition of the citrus project.

Meanwhile, Dr Butale has also revealed that the visit was one of the assignments that were to be carried out by President Duma Boko’s delegation, which is in Zimbabwe for the extraordinary SADC Summit.

Dr Butale said he took the opportunity to engage the Botswana Embassy as it is part of their mandate as the Ministry of International Relations, which is to ensure that they cultivate cordial relations with other countries, propagate and sell the values dearly held in Botswana of Botho and democracy, among others.

He said part of the mandate is economic diplomacy, meaning that the ministry is the contact point, coordinating foreign direct investment to flow into the country.

“I am very proud and happy that the embassy here in Zimbabwe has been actively involved in encouraging Zimbabwean-based businesses to go and invest in Botswana and one of those businesses is Schweppes,” he said.

Dr Butale said the company has identified land to set up a citrus farm and citrus products manufacturing plant and it has incorporated in Botswana.

He said one of the priorities of President Boko’s leadership is employment creation.

“We are in a hurry to create jobs. These factories that will be coming to set up in Botswana will make sure that we deal with the import substitution. We cannot afford to have such a huge import bill. We import almost everything that we use on a daily basis. We are excited that Schweppes is geared to put up a citrus farm and plant in Botswana,” he said.

He said the business will contribute to the pledge that government has made to Batswana of creating 450 000 to 50 000 jobs in the first five years.

Dr Butale said Schweppes is one of the companies that he has met since his arrival in Zimbabwe.

“We met Afrixem Bank, which is a multi lateral financial lending institution and is ready to provide funding for Batswana businesses,” he said.

He said they are hitting the ground running to ensure the quest as pronounced by President Boko in many forums of industrialising the economy and create enough jobs is becoming a reality. Ends