Daphne Ngwenya checks for ripe mangoes in Mpopoma suburb yesterday

BULAWAYO businessman and founder of MoB Capital Limited, Mr Morris Mpala, has championed a business environment programme under the “Big Mango” banner that seeks to promote the massive planting of the mango tree and unlock its value chain in Matabeleland North province.

Inspired by the need to preserve the environment and buttress the need for sustainable business modelling, Mr Mpala, who grew up in Hwange District, said he has realised the gap in harnessing fruit juice processing in the province.

He said Hwange town, in particular, was among many communities with a lot of mango trees whose produce goes to waste each year because of lack of business modelling around the fruit.

“There is a huge business potential in dried fruit and processed fruit juice locally and in the export market,” Mr Mpala said in an interview.

He said he grew up in Hwange and had seen the death of mango trees, wastage of mango fruits, air pollution rising as a result of rotting mangoes.

“There is over reliance (in Hwange) on earnings from mining operations and over reliance on coal as a business model for years.

There is as a result serious land degradation and generic health challenges.”

Mr Mpala said he was convinced that his “Big Mango” initiative would not only help diversify the province’s economy but also help promote environmental awareness and foster inclusive development through roping in communities that grow the mango trees.

“The need to address the above necessitated us to look at the Big Mango value chain.

This is a very ambitious and achievable value chain approach that should cover rural, peri-urban and urban areas of Kamativi, Hwange, Victoria Falls, Dete and Binga,” he said.

“We are saying let everyone — individuals, children, the youth and women business players, Government departments, churches, NGOs, traditional leaders and so on, take up the challenge as we try to develop the mango value chain.”

Mr Mpala said business model implementation has started with identifying participants to grow at least 10 big mango trees where ever they are in targeted zones.

“We will then move to open spaces, mini orchards and finally commercial plantations as we gear up to commercialise the nutritious fruit production from these co-ordinates,” he explained.

“To ensure success, we will offer training and in some instances seedlings and funding incentives across the value chain. Mango is the new business as we transition into a green economy.”

Mr Mpala said his vision was to generate more proceeds from the Big Mango value, which will spring-board new business ideas to grow the economy further at local community level.

This includes establishment of fruit processing mini-factories, packaging of and distribution facilities and linkages for the finished product.

Mr Mpala said he was consulting key stakeholders and potential partners to speed up project implementation.

He said a business proposal has already been done with a position paper set to be submitted to the Zimbabwe Investment Development Authority (Zida).