Former United States secretary of state Colin Powell once said that a dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
BY NDAMU SANDU
Harare-based Justice Moyo’s vision was to be a positive influence on the country. His journey has seen him taking courses in land survey, marketing and food technology. It is the latter which seems to have delivered him to the “promised land”.
“I dropped land surveying because I wanted to do marketing. When I was doing marketing, I was also into sales of food products. Because I wanted to understand the industry, I did food technology,” he said.
Due to the zeal for growth, Moyo founded Nutrition for Africa in 1999 to manufacture corn soya blend, overnight maheu powder, instant maheu, cooking oil and soya meal. The demand for liquid maheu forced him to form Vovita in 2014 to tap into a ready market.
The liquid maheu is now sitting at 25% of the market share, with Moyo saying there is room for improvement as the product has been widely accepted.
He said the company was considering exporting into the region, but was being weighed down by the high cost of production locally.
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The company had taken maheu for trials in South Africa where it had been accepted, Moyo said.
“Because of the high cost of production obtaining in Zimbabwe, we cannot produce locally and then export. We have to set up a plant in South Africa,” he said.
Moyo said the cost of production was higher in Zimbabwe as compared to regional neighbours such as South Africa and Zambia, making local products uncompetitive.
Moyo said Vovita wanted to increase production capacity by purchasing plant equipment and developing the company’s logistics department.
“This will ensure whoever wants Vovita maheu will get it throughout the country by May 2017,” he said. The company has a plant in Harare.
Moyo said government should support local industries by restricting imports of products and waiving duty on packaging material and preservatives that are not obtained locally. This, he said, would enable local players to build the critical mass to compete in the region.
But things have not been all rosy for Moyo, whose companies have had to downsize in order to remain competitive under the tough operating environment. Nutrition for Africa has cut its workforce to 30 from 80. Vovita now has 15 employees from 40, but despite the setbacks, Moyo is optimistic about the future.
“The future lies in food and drink. Maheu will be the main thing and we are looking forward to growing it,” said Moyo, who was born in Gwanda 46 years ago.
