Padenga Holdings Limited Chief Executive Officer, Gary John Sharp has said that the quality of the harvested crops (crocodiles) in the pens gives confidence that the crocodile farming corporate will attain the 46 thousand skin of 34.6 cm size, after improved physical conditions in 2017. The Chief Executive was speaking during the company’s annual general meeting in Harare.
Padenga, which conducted its first cells grading of the financial year at the end of April, achieved a grade average consistently according to the CEO.
“The physical environment in Zimbabwe has been more contagious for crocodile production in 2017 as warmer temperatures prevailing in the period of late, higher lake levels offering improved water quality,” John Sharp said.
Over 7 thousand skins have already been harvested in the current company’s financial year which commenced in March 2018.
The skin quality grade achieved last year had declined from 95 percent first grade in 2016 to 89 percent according to Alexander Kennedy Calder, Padenga’s Executive Chairman in the 2017 corporate annual report.
“The skin quality was negatively impacted by a combination of poor water quality resultant from low Lake water levels in late 2016 and early 2017 band a year of unnatural low average ambient temperatures for Kariba,” Calder said.
“Conditions generally were very adverse for premium quality skin production and skins did not finish to the extent and at the rate traditionally experienced.”
“One consequenceof this was that culling was delayed well into the final quarter of the year with 52 percent of the offtakes occuring in this period,” Calder went on.
Last year Padenga Holdings achieved skin size of 34.3 cm a slight improvement over that of 2016 which was 34.2 cm.
“Cash generated from operating activities doubled from $4,418,998 prior year to $8,833,638 in Financial Year 2017 in line with increased profitability,” Padenga’s Chairman said.
