Grace Mugabe takes on Nestle
04/07/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe’s supermarkets this week began stocking dairy products from First
Lady Grace Mugabe’s farm in Mazowe – a brazen challenge to Swiss food
conglomerate, Nestle, which bowed to political pressure to stop buying milk
from Gushungo Dairy Estate.
The country’s biggest supermarket chain, OK, on Wednesday was selling pints
of fresh milk and sour milk under Mugabe’s Alpha Omega brand.
Also being processed at the farm is powdered milk, ice cream and various
other products which will soon enter a market dominated by Nestle.
Zimbabwean blogger Cynic Harare observed that the packaging was “pretty
dull”, but added: “It tastes like milk, which means it’s better than some
stuff around. It’s a bit cheaper too.”
In a recent interview with state media, President Robert Mugabe’s wife
boasted that her dairy farm had 2,000 cows and was the second biggest in the
SADC region, with the capacity to milk 64 cows at one go.
In 2009, Nestle announced it would stop buying milk from Gushungo Dairy
Estate – built on a farm which was seized from a white farmer – after coming
under pressure from rights activists who threatened to campaign for a
boycott of Nestle products.