Zim targets cooking oil self-sufficiency to slash US$100m import bill

HARARE, 29 January (BelTA - ZBC) - Zimbabwe is targeting cooking oil self-sufficiency by 2027 through expanded local production of oilseeds, a move expected to significantly reduce the country’s crude cooking oil import bill, currently estimated at more than US$100 million annually.

The strategy centres on scaling up the production of key oilseed crops such as soya beans, sunflower and cotton, as government intensifies efforts to substitute imports with locally produced raw materials.

Farmers across the country are responding to the call, with notable progress recorded in Mashonaland Central Province. At Kushinga Farm in Mazowe, 180 hectares of soya beans are performing well this season, reflecting growing confidence in oilseed production.

Farm Manager Wallace Nhevera attributed the promising crop to timely planting and favourable rainfall.

“We produced 180 hectares of soybeans this year, and it was planted on November 23. We realised that if we farm soya beans, we will help the country to produce cooking oil and other production so we realised we will help the industry and we expect four and a half tonnes,” he said.

Agronomist Blessing Hatidane said the farm’s output reflects a broader response by farmers to government policy aimed at strengthening industrial crop production and building national seed security.

“We are working well with our farmer who produced 180 hectares of soybeans, it is not a joke if you are in commercial farming, so we have been working well. Soya beans give us food and stock feed, so it is an important crop,” Hatidane said.

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, said government has adopted a phased and comprehensive approach to agricultural production to ensure national self-sufficiency.

“We started with satisfying the stomach and we looked for which crops to produce, we saw maize, millet sorghum that is cereals, from there we looked at feed security, poultry, piggery and so forth, then we looked at oil seed security, so the plants which give us that are sunflower, cotton and soybeans those are the three things that if we get into the next season we can produce in the next season enough oil and stop imports,” Dr Masuka said.

Zimbabwe requires about 180 million litres of cooking oil each year and continues to rely heavily on imported crude soya bean and sunflower oil for local processing.

To stimulate domestic production, government last year gazetted Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025, which compels cooking oil producers to source at least 40 percent of oilseeds and related products locally by April this year.

The policy is expected to accelerate investment in oilseed farming and strengthen value chains, particularly among producers recording strong yields such as those in Mazowe, as Zimbabwe moves towards import substitution and agro-industrial growth.