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Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has responded to concerns voiced by Association Cotton Value Adders of Zimbabwe Vice Chairman who also doubles as Paramount Exports/Garments and Paramount Archer Group Finance Director, Jeremy Youmans that Zimbabwe is losing out by only processing 30% of its cotton and exporting 70% raw and unprocessed cotton lint.
President Mnangagwa visited Paramount Archer in Bulawayo during the height of Covid 19 pandemic last year where he praised the Group Finance Director’s Paramount Garments for employing over 2000 clothing factory workers who would like to take advantage of additional cotton fabric being made locally instead of the vast majority being exported.
Taking on Acvaz’s call for more intervention in processing the remaining 70% instead of exporting it raw, President Mnangagwa commissioned Zimbabwe’s yesteryear textile Producer, David Whitehead. David Whitehead was Zimbabwe’s biggest fabric producer which used to produce and supply Zimbabwe’s largest manufacturing exporter Paramount Exports with the requisite fabric churned from available cotton.
Mnangagwa on Wednesday commissioned David Whitehead Textiles, the country’s yesteryear biggest fabric producer, David Whitehead Textiles in Chegutu.
ETG Parrogate Group subsidiary Agri Value Chain (AVC), is set to inject US$20 million into the textile company for its turnaround strategy.
President Mnangagwa’s representative Industry and Commerce Minister, Dr Sekai Nzenza, commended the company for spearheading investment and employment creation towards attaining Vision 2030.
The Chegutu Fabric supplier David Whitehead Textiles was a major source of employment for most people in the town and its closure over a decade ago affected most families in the town, a situation that ACVAZ Vice Chairman Jeremy Youmans decried that had we been processing the remaining 70% that we export raw, jobs will not be getting lost.
President Mnangagwa said:
“Let me commend your genuine efforts towards resuscitating David Whitehead Textiles (DWT). You underscored the fact once you fully revive David Whitehead Textiles, it will be churning out 10 million metres of fabric annually. It will also be the sole manufacturer of fabric used in the production of military fatigues and school uniforms in Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa added that his second republic government was ready to render its support to the company to bring David Whitehead Textiles to its former glory.
Mnangagwa also launched AVC’s multi-million-dollar plant that comprises a cotton ginning factory and a state-of-the-art oil extraction plant with the capacity and capability to crush cotton, soybean, sunflower and canola seeds.
When President Mnangagwa visited in person Paramount Archer Clothing Company in Bulawayo last year, the President appreciated how much local fabric the firm used to take in from local producers who used to be companies like David Whitehead Textiles which was idle for the last decade and only revived days ago, Its revival will enable greater contribution to the clothing sector and support Paramount Exports which is also Zimbabwe’s largest manufacturing, clothing and exporting company by all standards.
Paramount Garments makes work wear, school uniforms, leisure wear, denim wear, and personal protective clothing, among other varieties.
Paramount Exports manufactures up to three million garments a year, Archer exports about 60% of its products to regional and European markets.
Paramount Garments Bulawayo factory which was formerly Archer Clothing was President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s first port of call when he took time to assess production levels at strategic firms based in Bulawayo.
The ACVAZ vice chair led the manufacturing company from the front by continuing to operate during the COVID-19 lockdown period, currently exporting 60 percent of its products, much to the delight of the government.
“The operations in this company are impressive given that this company never closed due to COVID-19 and they are exporting 60 percent of their products bringing in forex into the country and above that they employ over 2000 people that is the Bulawayo and Harare factories so they have an impact in our economy and we as government we are happy with that.” Mnangagwa said.
President Mnangagwa also echoed similar sentiments at the recent United Nations General Assembly UNGA sidelines meeting in New York United States of America when he quoted the Acvaz Vice Chairman’s concern on the 70% cotton Zimbabwe is not beneficiating inviting over investors into Zimbabwe’s cotton industry adding that given the high levels of cotton production in the country, the clothing sector is set for even greater expansion in line with his vision of an upper middle income economy by 2030.
The second Republic has in the past few agricultural seasons sought to revive the cotton industry through implementing the Presidential Inputs scheme being administered by Cottco.
Paramount Garments has two plants – one in Harare and another in Bulawayo, having empowered women and youths in most of the over 2000 jobs.
President Mnangagwa asserted Youmans’s call for cotton investment saying, “We produce cotton locally and we only have the capacity in Zimbabwe to process 30% of that cotton;the bulk – 70% – we export raw, which means there is a great opportunity for Investment so that we process and value add our Products.This is the same with many products in Agriculture.”
Jeremy Youmans also said, “Whilst cotton lint is often referred to as “white gold”, the value of our output and benefit to the country would be far greater if we value add it.
Just converting lint into yarn doubles it’s value. If we convert it into clothing the payback is ten times along with huge employment creation.”
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