Zimbabwe: US-Based Firm Seeks Partners

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 30 November 2007 12/03/2007

A Delegation from GCH International, a US-based tobacco equipment manufacturing company, will be in the country mid-December to explore business opportunities, a senior official said yesterday. President and chief executive Mr Jeff Androller told Herald Business yesterday in a telephone interview from France that the purpose of the visit was to scout for business opportunities and areas where business partnerships can be forged. He said the visit would also give the company an excellent opportunity to market its new and highly sophisticated tobacco harvester, The GCH Gold Standard Tobacco Harvester, the first of its kind in the world. "We have confidence in the vibrancy of the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe, particularly tobacco industry," said Mr Androller. "Our team will be in Zimbabwe to look for areas where we can partner, (or form) joint ventures. "We have the expertise in manufacturing state-of-the-art tobac-co processing equipment. It is our hope that GCH International would be able to share this expertise with Zimbabwe farmers for the advancement of their tobacco industry." GCH was one of the exhibitors at the just-ended World Tobacco Exhibition and congress. It was named the best tobacco equipment company after exhibiting its new tobacco harvesting machine. "The machine will really go some way in modernising the tobacco industry in Zimbabwe. "It is efficient and cost-effective and will help to reduce labour shortages in your country." The machine is operated by one worker. Plants are cut at near ground level and grasped by opposed gripper chains in the header, which elevates the plants and inverts them 180 degrees to be hung for curing. The harvester accounts for missing plants and fills the gaps accordingly while cutting approximately 2,5 plants per second with the maximum demonstrated harvest rate estimated at approximately five acres per day. Approximately 10 labour hours are required per acre harvested with the system, reducing labour requirements by approximately 85 percent per acre. The annual capacity of a harvester is approximately 200 acres (five acres per day for 40 days), thus the annual cost of the harvester per acre should be relatively low. Besides substantially reducing labour required in conventional harvesting, the system is totally portable and can be moved to any location. Other advantages of the system are dependability, predictabi manageability and safety. Enditem