Categories: Stories

Olivine to get $25 million to replace ageing machinery

 

Surface Wilmar says it intends to invest $25 million in Olivine industries to replace ageing machinery and improve the company’s productive capacity.

Surface is a joint venture between the Singapore headquartered agribusiness group, Wilmar, and Midex Global of India.

Together they own a 49 percent stake in Olivine which they bought off AICO in 2015.

Through its subsidiaries, Olivine, manufactures oilseed products, the Buttercup brand margarine and toiletries.

In a statement today the company said it had invested $15 million between 2015 and 2016 but was failing to break even due to unavailability of foreign currency.

“We have plans to inject a further $25 million, in various state of the art manufacturing plant and equipment to enable the company, Olivine to get back to its glory days,” reads the statement.

Surface Wilmar said the unavailability of foreign currency, and low oilseed production, was pulling down the existing investment and also concerning for shareholders.

“They are discouraged from further investment, as the returns are hampered by the negligible foreign currency support for essential raw materials.” – The Source

(225 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on December 18, 2017 12:39 pm

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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