Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE-based dairy processor, Dendairy, has commissioned a new Tetra Pak plant – a packaging machine for aseptic production of dairy products. The Tetra Pak plant packages germ-free products such as long life shelf milk and 100 percent fruit juices in a disinfected container in a way that maintains sterility.
Dendairy managing director Darren Coetzee told Chronicle Business that the investment will boost the company’s capacity to process between four to six million litres of milk per month, which is about 70 percent of the country’s dairy requirements.
He said: “The equipment that we’ve commissioned cost about $3,5 million which has seen the total infrastructure which we’ve set up so far shooting to over $10 million.
“The capacity that we’ve right now is anything between four million to six million litres of milk per month that we can process, which is 30 to 60 percent of the country’s needs.” The new dairy equipment comes after the dairy processor has made strides in boosting its capacity over the last three years.
In July 2014, the company commissioned two Tetra Pak plants, which produce 100ml and 200ml milk sachets of long life shelf milk as the Kwekwe-based milk processor sought to break into the hospitality sector where demand for milk packaged in small quantities is high.
In 2013, Dendairy had made an initial $6 million investment into its first Tetra Pak plant which saw the company becoming the first dairy processor to introduce long life shelf milk onto the market.
Coetzee commended the Dairy Revitalisation Programme for facilitating the importation of dairy cows into the country, which has boosted milk production to five million litres monthly.
He said in less than two years, the country would be able to meet all its local requirements whose monthly demand stands at between eight and 10 million litres. The Dendairy boss said the development would see the company utilising its capacity to optimum levels.