Friday, March 29, 2024

Zambeef sells its Sinazongwe Farm to Chinese firm for US$10 million

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Zambeef has announced that it has completed the sale of its Sinazongwe farm for US$ 10 million to Chenguang Biotech Agri-Dev Zambia Limited, a subsidiary of the Chenguang Biotech Group Co. Limited of China.

This was after Zambeef received final outstanding amount of U$ 6million from Chenguang this month after the initial payment of Us$ 4million.

The Sinazongwe sale proceeds will be used to pay down Zambeef’s debt and thus reduce gearing and interest costs.

Net proceeds after payment of various regulatory and other professional fees/costs) are expected to be USD9.25 million.

“As previously announced, the disposal of Sinazongwe Farm is a manifestation of the group’s stated strategy to focus on its core business of producing and retailing cold chain meat and dairy products and stock feed,” Zambeef said in a statement.

Sinazongwe Farm is located in the southern Zambezi valley along the northern shore of Lake Kariba, approximately 70 km south-east of Choma town.

The farm previously owned by government was acquired by Zambeef in 2003 for approximately USD2.3m from the Zambian government.

Sinazongwe Farm is made up of three land parcels, all on title deeds comprising a total land area of approximately 2,549.8 Ha. of which approximately 1,815 Ha is developed.
The main crops grown on the Farm are soya beans and wheat.

Zambeef Chairman Dr. Jacob Mwanza justified the transaction saying the disposal of Sinazongwe Farm is in line with the Group’s strategy of focusing on its core business of the production and retailing of cold chain meat and dairy products and stockfeed.

Dr Mwanza added that the Group’s largest, most efficient and most profitable farming estate is Mpongwe Farm adding that to have four farming estates very far apart from each other is costly, inefficient and administratively cumbersome.

Sinazongwe lies between 300m and 900m above sea level and cover a total area 4,964 square kilometre while Zambeef’s farm covers 2,549.8 Hectares.

The Chenguang Group is a listed company on the Shenzhen stock exchange with 22 subsidiary companies and is one of the world’s leading producers and suppliers of natural plant extraction for paprika oleoresin, capsicum oleoresin and marigold oleoresin.

The Chenguang Group also manufactures natural pigments, natural spice extracts, essential oils, natural nutrient and medicinal extracts and protein.

34 COMMENTS

  1. China come and take yo share of africa. We ar happy bcoz u will develop it. African leaders don’t kno hw to develop their countries. Pipo here ar still in the caveman era. They want to live as tribes..

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  2. The Chink formula is working with its Wuhan virus a lot of companies will be selling only for Chinks to scoop them up….now they will bring in Chink prisoners to come and labour on the farm in Chambia…import in cows that grow within a month and they are in the butchers.

  3. In China you as an African can never buy a 5 acre plot but in Africa you embrace the Chinks…am sure our dull President will fly over to welcome them!!

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  4. @Suwilanji

    The stone age has not even arrived while the rest of the world moves into the world goes beyond the information age…

  5. The Irwine family is sharp. They have seen what is coming. Doing business in zambia is becoming impossible if you want to do things honestly. I bet they will soon be selling proflight as well.
    In the current rotten, corrupt system only the chinese can excel because they have no principles. All they are interested in is money. They dont care how they make it. They dont care who suffers, they dont care what it costs. All they want is money. Finish.
    Zambia is being taken over by China. Locals that want to do any business will all hit brick walls, unless of course they are linked to pf and get corrupt contracts which they in turn will sell to chinese.

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  6. How come chinese didnt buy Zambeef 20 years ago….why now when PF in government that the Chinese are buying Zambia bit by bit….so Zambians cant manage Zambeef……shame to Bandit President Lungu…chimbokaila prison was also sold…kabwata sold….Matero sold….chibolya also sold to the chinese….

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  7. Chenguang Biotech Group Co., Ltd. is a China-based company principally engaged in the manufacture and sales of natural pigment extracts, natural spices extracts, essential oil extracts, natural supplement and medicine extracts, fat and protein and others. The Company’s products include pigment, spices, supplement and medicine products, cottonseed products and others. The Company distributes its products in domestic and to overseas markets.

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  8. Due to being furloughed, I have now been reduced to blogging with the common man on Lusaka times. This life mwebantu

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  9. Due to being furloughed, I have now been reduced to blogging with the common man on Lusaka times. This life mwebantu. By the way thanks lusakatimes for welcoming me to your site.

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  10. Dog meat, cat meat, pangolins, snakes and bats will now be sold in Sinazongwe. Whatever game that exists in this area that’s the end The whole Wuhan wet market will shift to Sinazongwe and Zambia in two years will create another outbreak. Koma ma Chinese are adored in Zambia. Tier 1 Citizen status.

  11. Please reverse this deal. We don’t want manufactured meat or eggs etc. We eat local. And when I say local I mean local standards and practices. Not Chinese or European cancer/diabetes/hypertension etc inducing standards. Remember the saga where Zambeef was discovered to be using aromatic aldehydes. A chemical used for embalming bodies! Mid 2013. I don’t eat tilapia from China. Tilapia from China is grown in massive sewage ponds. Why we want such food production methods in Zambia? Disgusting! Let’s produce our own food.

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  12. This is a commercial transaction. Chinese ownership now doesn’t mean change of ownership again is not possible. Appalled by the parochial reasoning I hv seen above.

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  13. It’s not easy to do business in this Third World war between America and China. It’s the big powers who will share the spoils.
    This is a very good strategy in business. When your going gets tough, dispose of some Assets and use the proceeds to reduce your debt exposure. This is critical in jurisdictions like Zambia where there is no meaningful stimulus package from the State. If sound incentives were offered, we wouldn’t be getting the Chinese buying everything. Suffice to say Zambia is not the only country where the Chinese are buying land and businesses. If you talk of Australia, it’s worse. Property prices have skyrocketted out of the reach of ordinary Australians because of Chinese demand. With only 10% arable land in use, let investors with money come and buy. It’s good for…

  14. @ Nemwine. The law is an ass. If you really serious about your NATIONAL interest. You can find something in your statutes. The privatized Railway Systems of Zambia was a big problem for LPM. Winter Kabimba and MCS kicked out the bogus investor within 6 months of ascending to power, without the loud mouthed unresearched & cowboy cadrerism we have witnessed in the liquidation of KCM and lawlessness that we witnessed at the Kitwe black mountain. The KCM & even your indegineous Zambian owned CEC sagas have attracted a negative perception of the country as an investment destination. Not suprised that Zambeef is bailing out. They saw what happened to white farmers in Zimbabwe. Be smart NOT loud mouthed for nothing.

  15. “It was a beautiful Friday morning in September, and I found myself sitting opposite Francis Grogan in his office on Huntley Farm, about a 45 minute drive north of Zambia’s capital Lusaka. The farm is the heart of Zambeef Products, a US$300m-plus business. With my dictaphone on and pen poised over notepad, I was there to speak to the man behind the company and find out how it got to its where it is today.”

    “China’s efforts to steal unclassified American technology, ranging from military secrets to medical research, have long been thought to be extensive and aggressive, but US officials only launched a broad effort to stop alleged Chinese espionage in the United States in 2018.”-Theguardian.com

  16. Although you have made profit,it seemed like take over.You had running capital and your liquid was good.Sad to note that Zambian businesses will not be protected,and Chinese will be running the show.

  17. Get the chinks OUT, it’s now a known verse around Africa that Zambia is now a Chinese colony, you see what you’ve done imwe ba mambala. Nxt sale state house, your Chinese friends will never allow you to buyl land in their country .

  18. Look people, it was not a fire sale. Zambeef put it on the market and a willing buyer made an offer which was acceptable to Zambeef. That’s hw business is done. Hw many of u are willing to come to a meeting to discuss and evaluate a business proposition if called? Businesses start as an idea always. There are still many opportunities in Zambia waiting for people to take risks. Trouble is there’s no real inter-disciplinary dialogue in Zambia. Engineers and scientists need to understand how accountants and economists think.

  19. Western countries Like Canada, Australia and others have banned the Chinese from buying farms, in Zambian’s case this purchase is for food export to china not for local consumption, china’s long term goal is food for china not Zambians and also expect lots of prison labour from china working on these farms. you will see alot more poaching of Zambian wildlife in the Kariba area soon as well. China is a threat to the world, look at what they created with this Covid 19.

  20. Expected and equally shameful. China is becoming our new colonial masters, only this time we’ve been stupid enough to sign the paperwork for them. The greedy and corrupt have ASKED them to come and be our masters. Only this time, they care nothing for our people – only for their pockets.

  21. Yaba, these Chinese, I hope that farm won’t be turned into an open pit mine! With the Chinese, anything goes as long as they can make money Never trust the Chinese! Isn’t it in Sinazongwe, where there are suspected oil deposits?

  22. This is all but wrong time to deal with China. Government should have bought the farm and give jobs to the Zambian people. Nationalize everything. China is taking over.

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