Cooking oil output seen doubling

COOKING oil production is expected to double due to an increase in soya bean production this year, Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe (OEAZ) president, Busisa Moyo, has said.
Soya bean hectarage doubled from 2020 levels but oil producers say local production of the crop is still not enough to meet all the country’s oil demand, which stands at 150 million litres per annum. During the 2019/2020 agriculture season, the country produced only 40 000 metric tonnes (MT) of soya bean.

“Our tonnages are rising…for our throughput for March, we are projecting 60-70 percent capacity up from the 30-40 percent range on refining capacity.
“The local soya crop will soon be available and will see improvement on crushing capacity and local solvent extraction of crude soya bean oil, which is currently below 20 percent rising,” Moyo told The Financial Gazett