By Josiah Mucharowana and Taruberekera Masara- Zimbabweans are buying both glittering new and re-conditioned tractors from South Africa in very large numbers despite coronavirus and the economic challenges prevailing in the country, it has been established.

In an interview a dealership salesman named George at Tractor Giants in the Pyramid area outside Gezina in Pretoria said Zimbabweans are their major customers.

“I can tell you Zimbabweans are our major customers. I like Zimbabweans because they buy cash,’

“About 80 percent of our customers are Zimbabweans. South Africans don’t spend that much here’

“Zimbabweans only have three questions. They ask how much, where to pay and when we will deliver the tractors the goods,” George said.

Zimbabweans, he said rarely give hassles in their transaction and the majority have trust issues because of many scams that abound. 

“As a dealership we tried opening outlets in Zimbabwe, Botswana and countries up north for their easy access but they still drive past and cross the border and come back to us,” he said.

In the end the dealership had no choice but to close the foreign branches.

“It did not make any business sense at all, let them come,” he said.

George attributed the scenario to the fact that many Zimbabweans have pieces of land to their names championed by the late President Robert Mugabe under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme and many would want to prepare for retirement. 

“The majority even work here in South Africa and save up for when they go home,” he said.

The brand Massey Ferguson is the most popular by Zimbabweans compared to other brands like Landini, John Deree, Kubota and New Holland some of which he said are ‘grey’ products.

Massey Ferguson 290, 165 and 188 including their dumper trailers are slipping off the makert floor in large numbers as favourites, he added.

The brand, he said is cheaper to repair in case of mechanical faults in need of urgent repairs.

“The nice thing about Massey Ferguson is one can repair it quickly on the go. There is no need to import mechanical parts. They are easily available in the form of filters and and the gearbox, it is everywhere,’ he said. 

” Zimbabweans like to call Massey Ferguson their Toyota Corolla. It can be fixed virtually anywhere,” George said.

Business for Tractor Giants- a walk in facility for tractors and a catalogue of other mechanised  farming implements, he said has been evenly spread out throughout the year despite the outbreak of the virulent coronavirus worldwide.

” Remember the agricultural sector is the only one that recorded profit margins in the wake of coronavirus,” he said,” 

“Business normally booms just after the rains even though in winter it’s a bit subdued, however we can’t sit and do nothing, we still sell,” he said.

“If I had four trucks to carry tractors across the border I would send them once every week. It just that we use two that cross at different times but normally we have two trucks to Zim every week carrying tractors , trailers , discs, sprayers, generators and other farming implements,”

George said waving at dozens of tractors he said have been paid for and ready for truck-shipping across the Beitbridge Border Post.

In addition, George said Tractor Giants offers customer incentives in the form of bulk discounts depending on the amount of goods bought.

“Sometimes we discount upto R5000 depending on what a customer buys at once. There is a variety of supporting accessories on show in addition to tractors. You find a customer buys more stuff say a tractor, disc, trailer, generator and more, we have to be reasonable and offer a discount, ” the salesman said.

Tractor Giants has two drop off points in Zimbabwe mainly in Harare and Bulawayo.

” We do not go further than that unfortunately,” he said.

Reportedly, Africa spends an estimated $35 billion annually on food imports, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which envisages that if the current trend continues, food imports could rise to $110 billion by 2050.

Africa should be the breadbasket of the world, AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina is quoted saying recently.

“Technologies to achieve Africa’s green revolution exist but are mostly just sitting on the shelves. The challenge is a lack of supportive policies to ensure that they are scaled up to reach millions of farmers.”

Other  experts say a transformation from small-scale subsistence farms to mechanised, more commercially viable farms is essential for African growth and food security.

Zimbabwe embarked on the Fast Track Land Reform Programme that saw the black majority acquiring previously white owned pieces of arable land. The move, championed by the country’ s formidable war veterans was however chaotic, with elites owning multiple farms. 

The move also witnessed immense capital flight with white owned businesses jumping ship to other countries citing disrespect for property rights.

Resultantly, Zimbabwe imports everything with South Africa accounting for the lion’s share of the import bill.