CSC set to exit receivership after MIF pays US$9m to creditors

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

The Cold Storage Commission (CSC), once one of southern Africa’s largest meat processors, is set to exit receivership after its parent company, Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund, paid about US$9 million to settle most of the company’s creditors, Business Times can report.

CSC was placed under receivership five years ago after British investor Boustead Beef, which had entered into a joint venture with the Government of Zimbabwe, failed to inject the promised US$130 million in capital.

Mutapa Investment Fund Chief Investment Officer, Simba Chinyemba, confirmed that the process to revive CSC is nearing completion.

“I think we’re almost finished with that process [of exiting receivership]. We have now almost completed payment of all the creditors. We’re just waiting for the final sign-offs on that,” Chinyemba said.

He said the fund was now following the necessary legal formalities to complete the process.

“And when that happens, I think a lot of what, when that process is—it’s obviously a legal process where certain people have to sign certain things. But we’re pretty much done and we’re well-aligned that it’s done, including with the necessary authorities. But when that happens, now we can bring this company online and actually allow it to be the powerhouse that it has always been,” he added.

The exit from receivership marks a potential turning point for CSC, which was once a critical player in Zimbabwe’s agriculture and export sectors. The company held lucrative beef export quotas to the European Union in the 1990s before collapsing due to years of mismanagement and financial distress.

Its decline began in the early 2000s and deepened around 2015, as mounting debts, poor management practices, and alleged corruption crippled operations. The company became insolvent, unable to attract new investment or secure working capital.

Experts have attributed CSC’s downfall to a mix of corporate governance failures, imprudent financial management, inadequate funding, ageing infrastructure, and the loss of key suppliers and skilled personnel.

Despite its decline, CSC remains a strategic asset. It owns one of the largest abattoirs in the region and controls about 240,000 hectares of land across Zimbabwe—resources that Mutapa Investment Fund plans to leverage in the company’s revival.

Chinyemba underscored that CSC’s infrastructure still gives it a strong competitive advantage.

“Firstly, regardless of the number of abattoirs in Zimbabwe, CSC’s abattoir is the best abattoir in the region by none. So that is already a competitive advantage,” he said.
“We will not abandon that part because CSC must be an outlet for all our farmers to be able to bring their beef and other animals as well to our abattoirs.”

He added that CSC’s Bulawayo abattoir—built to European Union standards—remains key to Zimbabwe’s ambitions to resume beef exports to lucrative international markets.

“Believe it or not, Zimbabwe still has quotas with the EU, and the abattoirs at CSC, particularly the Bulawayo one, were actually built to EU standards so that we can export our beef. So it was actually meant to be an export mechanism, not just for local demand. I do think that our abattoirs are important and that they will continue to be so purely because there is no better abattoir,” Chinyemba said.