malvernmugadzikwa
Oliver Kazunga
Senior Business Reporter
ZIMTRADE has challenged local exporters to make follow ups on trade missions that the national trade development and promotion agency would have made to boost the country’s exports.
Of late, the Government, has been on an offensive to promote the growth and development of an export-led economy.
It is in this context that ZimTrade, as a trade development and promotion agency, in recent years, has been embarking on trade missions in and outside Africa to explore export markets.
After conducting the surveys on different markets through which local exporters can penetrate, the agency hosts market dissemination seminars to provide critical information to existing and prospective exporters.
Speaking at the market survey dissemination seminar for the United Kingdom and Ghana in Harare yesterday, ZimTrade export promotion manager Mrs Vuyiswa Mafu said local exporters should be aggressive to tap into the export opportunities presented by different markets.
“And just to also mention that there will be a business delegation coming from Ghana this September organised by the World Trade Centre Ghana so they will be here (Zimbabwe) again to look for opportunities of doing trade. They will be looking at investment as well what they can do with Zimbabwean companies.
“Just to say that sometimes you know the statement that ‘the best form of defence is to attack,’ so we are urging everyone to attack the markets that we have been talking about today. Zimbabwean companies have been accused in the past of not being aggressive, so we really urge all of us with the information that has been provided, we found that you are in different sectors …as ZimTrade, we urge all of you to be aggressive and take advantage of that,” she said.
In her presentation, Mrs Mafu said the Gross Domestic Product per capita for Ghana, which has 16 provinces is US$2, 205 while that for Zimbabwe was around US$1 700 with 10 provinces.
She said the major economic contributors to Ghana’s GDP were the agriculture and services sectors.
“Ghana’s exports went down from US$16 billion in 2019 to about US$12 billion in 2021.
Ghana’s trading partners are China which features as the major trading partner for both exports as well as imports and the other countries, there is not much of African countries in that scenario, meaning that there is not much inter-African trade happening between Ghana and other African countries except for South Africa that’s where they import some products from.
“The major exports to Ghana will be your oils as well as minerals, apparently Ghana discovered oil not very long ago. I believe just over 10 years ago, in 2007 but they also have got minerals in the form of gold as well as diamonds that they have as a country.”
In terms of trade between Zimbabwe and Ghana, Mrs Mafu said there is not much trade to talk about.
She said the highest exports that Zimbabwe did to Ghana was in 2014 when about US$30 000 was made.
Last year, Ghana imported over US$1,8 billion worth of construction materials and that country’s construction industry is expected to grow by 4,1 percent, a slowdown compared to the estimated growth of 5,7 percent year-on-year in 2021.
Mrs Mafu said Ghana’s Fast Moving Consumer Goods, manufacturing, processed foods and horticulture sectors present opportunities that Zimbabwean companies can also tap into.
Earlier in her presentation, ZimTrade market analyst Mrs Lorraine Muzadzi said the United Kingdom market also presented opportunities for export for Zimbabwean companies.
She said the UK market was dominated by international brands largely dominated by China, South America and Europe.
She said local companies have the potential to export a variety of products in sectors such as FMCG, horticulture, arts and craft, as well as cosmeceuticals.
Bongani Ndlovu