Ashley Masakadza

National Foods has launched Zimbabwe’s first-ever pasta manufacturing factory which is expected to reduce the importation of the product.

The plant is part of the US$30 million investments pledged by the food manufacturing company in Zimbabwe as it has embarked on other projects such as the establishment of flower and cereal mill plants.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Michael Lashbrook said the plant will save the country from spending money towards importing pasta as it will be a lot sourced locally.

“This establishment will see the country saving up to 2.5 million USD monthly in imports. Now in other sites, we’ve gone into breakfast cereals in a big way and Bulawayo a very important investment for us is a new flower mill on the existing site. A lot of those investments are going up the value chain and what we are aiming to achieve is taking our basic maize and flour and add value to them,”he said.

The Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr. Sithembiso Nyoni commended the investment, saying it will boost the local manufacturing industry at a large scale.

“Everywhere I go I see growth and I want to congratulate National Foods because they are putting out two new plants for pasta and biscuits. This shows a good record of growth and when I was talking to them and asking them how they have managed to grow, they said it was the stability of the currency,” she said.

The new pasta plant will be driven by the growing wheat production in the country which reached high record yields last season.