The poultry business had become so lucrative at the height of the country’s economic crisis that Air Zimbabwe and the Civil Aviation Authority decided to get into the business and fly out day-old chicks to earn forex.
This was said by the managing director of Irvine’s Day Old Chicks, David Irvine, who seemed to be thriving on his connections with several of President Robert Mugabe’s top lieutenants.
Irvine was offering advice to central bank governor Gideon Gono to make his farm more profitable by reducing overcrowding and improving feed delivery.
He described Godwills Masimirembwa, then head of the National Income and Pricing Commission, as a “half-baked chicken farmer”.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08HARARE232, POULTRY AND PATRONAGE, HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN AN
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Reference ID |
Created |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXYZ0690
PP RUEHWEB
DE RUEHSB #0232/01 0871037
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271037Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2633
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1889
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1842
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 1966
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1243
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1600
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2022
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4453
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1093
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC//DHO-7//
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK//DOOC/ECMO/CC/DAO/DOB/DOI//
RUEPGBA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE//ECJ23-CH/ECJ5M//
C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 000232
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR S. HILL
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN
TREASURY FOR J. RALYEA AND T.RAND
COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2018
TAGS: EAGR ECON ETRD PGOV ASEC ZI
SUBJECT: POULTRY AND PATRONAGE, HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN AN
ECONOMIC CRISIS
REF: 07 HARARE 0772
Classified By: Ambassador James D. McGee for reason 1.4 (d)
——-
SUMMARY
——-
¶1. (C) Econoffs met with David Irvine, Managing Director of
Irvine’s Day Old Chicks Ltd on March 19 to discuss the
business climate ahead of the elections. Irvine, who has
connections to a number of pro-Mugabe Ministers, is
exploiting all angles to procure the inputs needed to keep
his business going as he focuses on exports. He lamented
that business was very, very difficult now. Nonetheless,
Irvine’s is well-placed to take advantage of any economic
recovery. END SUMMARY.
——————–
Maize Shortages Bite
——————–
¶2. (C) Despite Irvine’s political connections, Zimbabwe’s
declining economy has started to bite. Irvine’s plant is
operating at 75 to 80 percent of capacity because of a
shortage of maize. (NOTE: Eighty percent capacity utilization
is unusually high for a Zimbabwean business, many of which
are operating at only 10 percent capacity. END NOTE.) At the
time of the meeting, Irvine said he didn’t have enough maize
to process chicken feed. He had had to start importing maize
from Zambia, using his foreign exchange and paying for the
transportation in forex as well. Irvine related that his
situation was not unique. Labor Minister Nicholas Goche had
had only about 60 percent of his normal crop yield this year
and even Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gono was
scrambling to find maize for his poultry farm.
————————-
Exploiting all the Angles
————————-
¶3. (C) Irvine admitted using his political connections and
his supply of poultry products to keep his farm in business
and profitable. He gives the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) diesel fuel to fix electrical faults and
also gives the ZESA workers chickens and eggs so his
operation gets priority service during Zimbabwe’s frequent
power outages. He also buys Minister Goche’s entire maize
and soya crop, and the two are such close business partners
that they don’t do a formal accounting. Irvine has access to
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) maize at a deeply subsidized
price. Irvine also described how he made a deal with Land
Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa to lease the Irvine
family farms south of Harare to avoid losing them in
fast-track land reform. As Econoffs arrived, Irvine was
arranging to allow a ZANU-PF rally on one of his farms,
providing transportation and beef from his own herd for the
rally in addition to the location.
¶4. (C) Irvine described his assistance to a number of
pro-Mugabe ministers who were in the poultry business. They
are apparently attracted by the potential to make quick
profits from exporting eggs and day-old chicks. Irvine had
recently visited Governor Gono’s chicken farm and offered his
advice and assistance to make it profitable by reducing
overcrowding and improving feed delivery. Enumerating other
examples of high-ranking pro-Mugabe individuals and
institutions that are discovering the potential profitability
of the poultry business, Irvine described Godwills
Masimirembwa, head of the National Income and Pricing
Commission (NIPC), as a “half-baked chicken farmer” and noted
that Air Zimbabwe and the Civil Aviation Authority of
Zimbabwe (CAAZ) have also decided to get into the business
and fly out day-old chicks to earn forex.
———————————–
Economy’s Distortions Still Hurting
———————————–
¶5. (C) Since price controls tightened, Irvine has upped
its export of eggs from 50 percent in August 2007 when we
last met him (reftel) to 70 percent of production. In early
February he was able to negotiate a significant increase in
the price of eggs after writing to the Chief Secretary of the
Cabinet about the effect of the maize shortage on his ability
to supply the local market. According to Irvine, the Cabinet
was so worried about having adequate supplies of poultry and
eggs on the shop shelves in the run-up to the election that
it supported his request. Irvine explained that the
government paid no attention to post-election prices or
supply.
¶6. (C) Irvine claimed his business earned US$1 million in
revenue per month, up from US$750,000 when we last spoke.
Despite the increase in revenue and the fact that he still
gets to retain 90 percent of his forex earnings (rather than
the 65 percent most exporters are permitted by law), he was
still not investing in his Zimbabwe operations. He needed to
modernize his equipment, some of which had been around since
the 1960s, but claimed he simply didn’t have the resources to
invest. Irvine had begun to keep accounts in U.S. dollars
and found that his profitability in hard currency was
declining despite increasing Zimbabwe dollar profits and
sales growth. The growth couldn’t keep up with the sliding
exchange rate.
¶7. (C) Irvine did not think the economy could hold up on its
present path until the end of the year, but would gradually
dollarize. He claimed residential rentals were already
denominated in U.S. dollars – and not only for expats – and
many companies benchmarked their accounts in U.S. dollars as
well. He said that Zimbabwe would require the IMF’s help to
reduce inflation and Irvine recognized that money would need
to be poured into the railroads, roads and power grid to
start a recovery.
¶8. (C) Despite the sound management and profitability of
Irvine’s Day Old Chicks, Irvine recognized that eliminating
the economy’s distortions would weaken the company’s balance
sheet. He said that if he had to pay market prices for maize
and had to borrow at real interest rates, his prices would
have to rise and his sales would decline. He thought if the
company could make it through the initial pain of a recovery
period, it would return to profitability.
——-
COMMENT
——-
¶9. (C) It is ironic that Irvine has such a close relationship
to many pro-Mugabe, stalwart ZANU-PF ministers and that they
give special deals to this white family farming operation
with deep roots in the Ian Smith government. The two sides
are not natural allies, and Irvine seems to represent exactly
the type of farmer fast-track land reform would have
targeted. The two sides, however, are bound by a symbiotic
relationship. It appears to be of little concern to top
ZANU-PF officials that Irvine’s use of subsidized GMB maize
as feedstock and the export of most of the eggs and chicks
does little to reduce the scarcity of food in Zimbabwe.
Clearly money is more important than revolutionary rhetoric
to many of today’s ZANU-PF ministers. END COMMENT.
MCGEE
(26 VIEWS)
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