Online Reporter
HORTICULTURE is seen as a set of high-value crops that make very good use of limited land and water with markets both within Zimbabwe and a rapidly growing export market.
So the target of building a horticultural industry that can generate US$2 billion a year is no pipe-dream, but a practical and attainable goal so long as all the requirements are met.
This would put horticulture ahead of tobacco as the top agricultural export so long as more than half of production was exported.
Farmers are building up their skills and trying out new crops, expanding the range of what they produce and opening new sources of revenue.
A range of Government and private-sector initiatives are backing the farmers with the infrastructure and systems that are needed to collect the produce and bring it to the market, everything from decent roads and cold rooms to cargo handling at airports.
Horticulture does not have to be limited to well-funded larger farmers, a limit that once hampered growth.
Smallholders with some access to irrigation can be part of the industry, a major part, so long as they are backed with access to markets and, for export markets, the cooperatives or private businesses that can collect and consolidate produce. Zimbabwean farmers and those in the horticulture industry need to also build on local strengths in climate.
In the tropics, the range of altitudes allow both tropical and sub-tropical crops to be grown and often with extended growing seasons.
One major crop that has suddenly exploded into profitable production has been the blueberry, with Zimbabwe now among the top five global producers after moving out of the trial stages just a little over five years ago.
Exports had risen to around 2 500 tonnes worth US$11 million in 2020, near the beginning of the Second Republic. Since then production has risen rapidly, reaching 6 240 tonnes last year worth around US$50 million.
This year total production is almost certain to hit 10 000 tonnes, the estimate based on what is in the ground and has reached the fruit-bearing stage.
Even after satisfying the local market, the overwhelming bulk of that crop will be exported with earnings of well over US$60 million expected.
One major reason for Zimbabwe being able to make inroads so rapidly in the global market, besides the rapid rise in demand, is geography.
Zimbabwean farmers start harvesting a couple of weeks before other major southern hemisphere producers and can harvest for around two weeks longer.
For a crop, which despite cold chains giving longer life, still gives maximum prices in fresh fruit markets, this is important. Of course, another reason for the Zimbabwean breakthrough in the global market has been a stress on quality. Zimbabwean farmers looking at export crops, and our tobacco farmers are a prime example, have learnt that sheer volume is not enough.
International buyers also want the highest qualities, especially when they are going to pay top dollar. Zimbabwean farmers want that top dollar to pay the special attention needed to bring in the quality. It is also important that the quality is maintained right along the value chain until the crop is sold. This means for highly perishable crops like blueberries and many other horticulture products, we must have the cold chains in place, right from the farm gate to the aircraft container.
Where we are selling into regional markets, and Zimbabwean farmers are doing this now, it means that we need properly equipped trucks and good roads the Government is spending so much money on constructing and reconstructing.
One major problem with export horticulture in the past was the lack of capacity on aircraft using Zimbabwe.
The open skies policy of the Second Republic, allowing any airline to fly in and pay just reasonable cost-recovery landing fees, means that there is a lot more capacity, especially with the modern aircraft and their larger cargo capacity.
Horticulture is a useful high-value low bulk cargo for planes flying out, since most exports are better moved by sea. There has been more air cargo coming into Zimbabwe, everything from urgently needed spare parts onwards, than going out, so the airlines have the capacity to step up horticulture exports.
Even the quality in the local markets has been rising as a result of the land reform programme, with new farmers needing quality to break into established markets. Now village business units are also introducing a lot of small-scale producers to the markets. With the rapid expansion possible in production with these village units, there appears to be an opening for specialist export contractors to work out ways of getting quality products of the most desirable varieties to foreign markets.
A daily cold truck can handle the pick-up at several villages for the freshest produce. Again, as we have seen in tobacco where the prices of contracted crops tend to average higher than those sold at auction, one huge advantage of small scale producers is that they can nurse their crops better than someone trying to manage a large estate and can see the very first sign of any problem and fix it.
They can pick their crop at exactly the right moment, useful when being a day early or a day late might slash the price and in horticulture we often have that situation where we need to be picking on exactly the right day.
All small-scale farmers usually need is the backing for inputs and collection and marketing. In some countries cooperatives have been a mainstay and this is worth investigating in Zimbabwe.
We already know that so long as there is proper regulation, honest contractors and farmers can cooperate to the advantage of both.
The Horticulture Development Council could be upgraded to become the sort of high-powered regulator as the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, which has done so much to ensure Zimbabwe’s top agricultural export is grown and marketed in proper conditions.
Considering that we are now looking at horticulture to become a worthy competitor for the top slot in farm exports, we can learn from how the tobacco industry was built up and adopt many of the same sort of systems of a largely private sector and investor-driven industry, but with a decent regulator ensuring that both farmers and marketing firms are working together fairly and productively.
