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Our History

  • Established in 1978.
  • Developed from principally a vegetable seed trading business to a an integrated seed business incorporating seed production, processing, trading and retailing.
  • First seed company in Africa to achieve ISO9002 Certification.
  • In the late 80’s/early 90’s NTS was the largest supplier of open pollinated seeds, principally maize seed, to the region, supplying mainly NGO’s for emergency relief.
  • In 2000, merged with Impala Seeds, a sister company who operated as a agri-input retailer and expanded the branch network to 10 stores located throughout Zimbabwe under the banner of National Tested Seeds.
  • In 2003, was the first company to register OPV maize seed varieties in Zimbabwe.
  • In 2003, having lost its production farms through the Land Reform Program, developed a ‘franchise concept’ to expand its retail network to agents, developing a network of approx. 50 agents, distributing through a central distribution center as well as through its stores.
  • In March 2009, Zimbabwe stopped using its local currency to become principally a USD economy. Businesses required re-capitalization with limited USD liquidity in the market. 
  • In 2010, NTS was the recipient of a grant amounting to $600,000 which is being used to promote small scale seed production and the purchase of a mobile seed cleaning unit to undertake on farm processing. The grant was won through the African Enterprise Challenge Fund, an AGRA initiative where companies apply to a competition to win the funds based on a sustainable business model that has a high developmental impact.
  • In 2014, rebranded its retail division to Farm Shop and expanded its branch network to 15 stores countrywide.
  • In 2015, re-established a formalised Agency Network which will use the Farm Shop and NTS banners, and where rural agrodealers will source a selection of agricultural inputs from Farm Shop, using the local Farm Shop Branch as a hub.
  • In 2015, Farm Shop further expanded its national footprint by opening additional stores, to total 20, which to a larger extent means that Farm Shop now services the entire country.
  • In 2016, NTS released its first two maize hybrids into the Zimbabwean Market
  • In 2017, Farmshop started to import various hardware lines directly from China to augment it’s GoFarm brand
  • By 2019 had developed it’s store network of 27 stores which effectively gave FarmShop a national footprint.