Border Timbers (Ltd) walked away with the overall exporter of the year award at the recently held ZimTrade exporter of the year awards ceremony.
Border Timbers is a forestry and saw-milling company in Zimbabwe which operates five forest estates, three sawmills. The company’s principal products include pine and eucalyptus.
The annual awards which are hosted by ZimTrade, the national trade development and promotion organization, which is celebrating its silver Jubilee, appreciate and reward companies that are doing well in different sectors of the economy in terms of exporting goods and services around the globe.
Border Timber were thus duly crowned exporter of the year in a ceremony which was running under the theme “Maximizing competitiveness advantage to drive export-led growth”.
“Border Timbers’ success emanates from a change in business models which have enabled us to create linkages with companies from across the world and this has also enabled us to realize quite huge sales,” said Bernard Makoni, the Marketing and Sales Manager of Border Timbers.
In his key note address, guest of honour and Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha said government is prioritizing exports in an effort to increase trade between the country and other global trading partners.
“Government is making frantic efforts to increase exports so as to create a huge link between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world. We can operate in a vacuum hence we have seen the need to prioritize exports.
“Not only are we concerned about opening markets with the rest of the world, but we are also trying to get the much needed foreign currency for the economy to perform better,” he said.
Bimha added, ” Zimbabwe legs behind in the ease of doing business compared to other countries in the region and urged policy makers to come up with policies that facilitate ease trade between Zimbabwe and other trading partners.
“We implore ZimTrade for coming up with such an event which recognizes and honors companies that are vigorously making frantic efforts to make the ZimASSET program a success by continuously contributing towards the Value addition and beneficiation cluster through exporting their wares in order to contribute to the country’s foreign currency reserves,” Bimha said.
He also revealed that government is in the process of formulating a National Export Policy which will, in the long run, make it easy for companies to trade globally.
Full List of Winners
- Agriculture Input Sector- Ecomak Limited
- Agriculture Implements Sector-MediBrand- Division of Brown Engineering
- Building and Construction Sector- Border Timbers
- Clothing Sector—Paramount Export Pvt Ltd
- Textiles Sector- Zimbabwe Spinner and Weavers Ltd
- Processed Foods and Beverages- Lake Harvest Aqua Culture Ltd
- Engineering Sector- Mamsen Engineering Pvt Ltd
- Furnituring Sector – JW Wilson International Pvt Ltd
- Hotculture/Floriculture Sector- Zimflex
- Hotculture (Fresh produce) Sector- Kamina Kawena Pvt Ltd
- Leather Products and Footwear Sector-Ego Italian Shoes Pvt Ltd
- Households and Electrical Goods Sector –CAFCA Ltd
- Packaging Sector- Hunyani Paper and Packaging Pvt Ltd
- Pharmaceuticals Sector – Varichem Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.
- Overall Exporter of the Year Award- Border Timbers sponsored by Stanbic bank
