Most of the soya bean produced in Zimbabwe is, however, primarily used in oil expression.

A producer price increase for soya beans for the 2017/18 farming season is on the cards.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement minister Perrance Shiri said farmers, who have started harvesting their soya bean, must stop selling their produce to the informal sector.
He said prices being offered in the informal sector were lower than what farmers would earn if they sell their crop through the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
The minister warned farmers to avoid being exploited by informal sector buyers because they were likely to buy their crop at lower prices for resale to the GMB at higher prices.
Farmers sold their crop for $610 per tonne last season.
“Government has noted that the soya bean crop is now being harvested and farmers are already selling the crop, sometimes at relatively low prices in the informal sector,” Shiri said in the statement.
“Government would like to inform the farming community that it is currently finalising a soya bean producer price which will be much higher than the current GMB soya bean buying price to farmers of $610/tonne. This price will be announced within the next three weeks. Farmers are, therefore, requested to be patient and should wait for this exercise to be finalised. Government wants the price benefit to go directly to farmers. Right now it is possible that the people buying the soya beans will later on sell to GMB for a higher and better price,” said the minister.
Soya bean output has been declining in the past few years, with production dropping to 47 700 tonnes in 2016 from 57 900 tonnes in the 2014/15 season.
The 2016/17 soya bean hectarage fell by 47 percent to 17 000 hectares from 29 730 the previous year.
Former agriculture mechanisation and irrigation development minister Joseph Made attributed the decline to farmers who traditionally grew soya beans opting to grow maize under the Command Agriculture programme.
Soya bean is used to produce a variety of high value marketable products which include soya bean cake (stock feed), soya milk, soya flour and soya bean oil.
Most of the soya bean produced in Zimbabwe is, however, primarily used in oil expression.
It contributes about 30 percent of all the cooking oil production while cottonseed contributes about 50 percent.
The country has a soya bean crushing capacity of 450 000 tonnes, but the industry is currently operating below 10 percent of its potential capacity.
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