The Cold Storage Company is on the brink of collapse and is left with only 600 cattle at its 9 farms across the country. This translates to 66 beasts per farm. 

The parastatal had thousands of cattle in the 1990s but has fallen on hard times due to alleged mismanagement and corruption, and lack of innovation to deal with competition from private sector meat suppliers. 

The Chinhoyi plant provides a microcosmic view of the state of affairs at the once vibrant company. 

The CSC Chinhoyi used to employ about 500 people at the state-of-the-art plant in the Mashonaland West provincial capital at its peak, but now struggles to pay a skeletal staff of 65. 

Equipped with a capacity to slaughter 500 cattle a day on conventional line, the company now slaughters only 15 beasts a day on a service slaughter basis.

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