Glenara Estates listed for land redistribution
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:45
Chris Muronzi
GOVERNMENT has listed Glenara Estates, a productive farm owned by listed
agricultural concern CFI, for its land redistribution programme.
The prime 2 200 hectare farm, just 20km on the outskirts of Harare on Mazowe
Road is home to some of CFI’s poultry business and cropping.
According to sources, civil servants and military personnel brandishing
offer letters told management at the farm they would be taking over parts of
the estate.
Government, through Zimre Holdings Ltd, owns a majority stake in CFI
Holdings.
Glenara Estates acting GM Langton Nyabanga confirmed the development.
Nyabanga said due to the sensitivity of their poultry business on the farm,
the group’s birds would be prone to disease should the new beneficiaries
settle on the farm.
Apart from diseases key water facilities were located on the 400 hectares
that the civil servants want to occupy.
Nyabanga said CFI a few years back applied to government to block the use of
old Mazoe Road to enable the group to deal with disease control in the area.
Crest Poultry Group’s MD Tapera Mpezeni said the group invested US$2 million
from a drawn down a 5-year US$3,8 million PTA Bank facility to construct
Environmentally Controlled Houses on the Estate with a capacity to handle
40 000 birds each. He said four such houses were under construction.
Mpezeni said the new facility would lower mortality rates to around 3% to 5%
compared to 8-10% at the open sided facilities at the estate.
“We get our target weight in 33-35 days in environmentally controlled
houses, compared to 42 days in the open sided facility. The houses are
feed and space efficient,” said Mpezeni.
The CFI group solely owns Glenara Estates. The agricultural estate houses
part of CFI’s broiler operations. Management sees the estate increasingly
becoming the core location for the group’s poultry division.
In addition to broilers, the estate has 714 hectares under commercial maize,
270 hectares under soya beans, 33 hectares under seed maize and 50
hectares under sugar beans.
A number of listed agricultural firms have lost land to influential people,
including judges and cabinet ministers over the years, after Zanu PF
launched its land reform exercise a decade ago for redistribution to
landless blacks.
But critics say government and party officials got the lion’s share of the
prime land.