Sugar producer Hippo Valley ‘fails to pay workers in time’ due to Zimdollar shortage

Zimbabwe’s biggest sugar producer Hippo Valley Estates Limited, a subsidiary of Tongaat Hulett Limited has failed to pay its workers in time due to the shortage of the Zimbabwean dollar on the market.

In a letter to all its workers, Hippo Valley said the delay was due to the changes in the economic environment which saw the company failing to mobilize enough Zimdollars.

The company said it would increase its US dollar proportion payout to the workers so as to cushion them owing to this scenario.

Apparently, according to market watchers, the government mopped up the Zimdollar from the market creating a fake gain for the local currency.

The Zimdollar recently traded a bit stronger to the US dollar on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe foreign currency auction.

Hippo Valley is primarily involved in growing and milling sugar cane in Zimbabwe.

This involves planting, maintaining and harvesting sugar cane crops and haulage to the sugar mill. The milling segment crushes and produces raw sugar.

Hippo Valley Estates is an extensive enterprise and has other interests in sugar packaging, game hunting, fishing, and livestock and citrus farming. Chiredzi Township (Private) Limited provides services for water treatment.

The Hippo Valley Estates and Triangle Sugar mills in Zimbabwe have combined milling capacity to crush more than 4,8 million tons of cane annually and produce over 640 000 tons of sugar. Refining capacity is 140 000 tons per annum.

Zwnews