CORRECTED - H.J. Heinz says sold Zimbabwe oil maker over crisis

(Corrects size of stake in paragraph 1)

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - United States food group H.J. Heinz Co, which has sold its 51 percent stake in Zimbabwe's top cooking oil maker to President Robert Mugabe's government, said it had pulled out of the country because of economic instability.

In a statement, Heinz (HNZ.N) said the sale was part of the group's strategy to consolidate its operations towards profitable growth, and the investment in Zimbabwe's Olivine Industries did not look promising.

"On June 1, 2006, Heinz took a charge to write down its investment as a result of the continuing uncertainty regarding the stability of the currency and economic conditions in the country," it said.

Zimbabwe is struggling with chronic shortages of food, fuel, and foreign currency, inflation over 7,600 percent and crumbling services in an acute economic crisis many blame on Mugabe's government.

Mugabe says the crisis is caused by Western opponents, and is driving controversial policies he says are aimed at empowering Zimbabwe's black majority.

The Zimbabwe government's acquisition of Olivine marks the start of its campaign to control foreign-owned firms in the southern African country.

The government has introduced in parliament a law seeking to transfer majority ownership of foreign-owned firms to locals.

Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana on Tuesday told state radio that the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill would become law within 30 to 45 days.

Heinz, which makes Ore-Ida potatoes and Smart Ones frozen meals in addition to Heinz ketchup, was one of the first foreign investors in Zimbabwe after the country's independence from Britain in 1980.

But relations between Olivine and Harare soured in 2006 over charges the firm stopped producing cooking oil after being barred by Washington from buying from white-owned farms that had been seized by Mugabe's government and redistributed to blacks.