Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE-based milk processor, Dendairy Limited has started exports to Mozambique where it is hoping to capture a large market share and plans to expand to Zambia. Riding on the back of a 25 percent levy introduced by the government to curb the influx of dairy imports, Dendairy has witnessed tremendous growth in the last six months with output increasing by 35 percent.

Dendairy managing director, Darren Coetzee said the company has exported long life shelf milk, yoghurt, among other products to the country’s eastern neighbour.

“We’ve seen growth in the last six months due to the fact that the government put levies on milk imports. We’ve benefited immensely from it and at the moment we’re exporting into Mozambique,” he said.

“We’ve already exported two batches of our products already and we’ve had a good response. Soon we’ll be looking at exporting into Zambia as well.

“We’ve seen our juices, long life milk and yoghurts being popular in Mozambique. There’s quite a big range that we’re sending out and we’ll continue to explore new markets for our products.”

Coetzee said the company had shelved exports to South Africa due to the firming of the greenback against the rand, which has made local products uncompetitive across the Limpopo.

Increased production for the Kwekwe based dairy firm has reduced its prices by up to 15 percent, which has improved the firm’s competitiveness against foreign imports mainly coming from South Africa.

Coetzee said going forward the company would be investing in introducing a new range of products onto the market in the next six months.

Following the company’s commissioning of two new Tetra Pak A1 for Tetra Fino Aseptic (TFA) plant, a packaging machine for aseptic production of dairy products for long life shelf milk, the company has introduced 100 and 200 millilitre (ml) sachets, which have been targeted mainly for the hospitality industry.