eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
The country’s external trade facilitation body, ZimTrade, says it is developing export clusters to integrate small scale farmers into export business.
ZimTrade chief executive, Allan Majuru, said the country was increasing engagements between local farmers and buyers in Europe and United Kingdom, where focus was on market requirements.
“Horticulture exporters in Zimbabwe are facing capacity challenges in accessing the European Union market thus limiting their ability to realise full export growth opportunities,” said Majuru said.
“To address this challenge, ZimTrade is developing export clusters across the country where the target is also to integrate smallholder farmers into export business.
“By doing this, the country will increase the number of producers, which in turn will boost-linked production.
“In the previous years, other horticulture farmers have also not been able to fully participate in exports due to market access requirements being imposed by the EU. This has resulted in some farmers giving up on exports, closing, and others downsizing.”
Zimbabwe’s horticulture sector is among the top five contributors to gross domestic product (GDP), behind tobacco, maize, and cotton, with huge potential to contribute to growth of Zimbabwe’s exports.
Zimbabwe has a diverse horticultural subsector and most of the producers are small scale farmers. The growing global market for horticulture, in the form of fruits, nuts and vegetables, presents opportunities for Zimbabwean sector players to grow their exports.
Majuru said as Zimbabwe intensified efforts to revive the economy, the agricultural sector was a low hanging fruit with potential to earn the much-needed foreign currency through export of quality horticultural produces.
With regards to market penetration, Zimbabwe has a reputation for being a source of quality horticultural produces.
“In fact, there is a general appreciation in countries like Netherlands where buyers say Zimbabwean produces such as blueberries taste better compared to other countries,” said Majuru.
Currently, typical cash crops being produced for the export market include temperate fruits (oranges, apples, pears, peaches, and nectarines), tropical fruits and vegetables (baby corn, butternut, citrus, chilli, gem squash, kiwi, lychee, mango, passion fruit, and pineapples), baby carrots, fine beans, cherry tomatoes, mange tout peas, melon, strawberries and sweet corn, as well as flowers.
The major markets for Zimbabwe horticultural exports are; Netherlands, United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany, Hong Kong, Portugal, France, China, Norway, Poland and Spain. United Kingdom is second largest importer of Zimbabwean horticultural products and with the coming in of the UK-ESA EPA, Britain has signalled intention to strengthen bilateral trade relations.
With the Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan under implementation to stimulate export growth, indications are that local farmers will boost production, making it easy to meet requirements by buyers and growing demand.
Currently, there is a growing demand for organic foods among consumers, as more people are becoming health conscious and looking for products that are high in nutrients and low in calories.
“Consumers are becoming more aware of foods containing synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and are switching to organic foods, which is driving the market growth of organic farming that is devoid of the chemicals used in crops,” said Majuru.
