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Edgar Vhera Agriculture Specialist Writer
THE sealing of the Zimbabwe-China citrus trade protocol continues to inch towards full consummation with the country’s three containers of lemon that recently left Beira en route to China confirmed to have successfully docked at Jebel Ali, Dubai.
This comes as export of lemons to different destinations is expected to increase 87 percent from 2 365 tonnes in 2022 to 4 425 tonnes this year, the Horticultural Development Council (HDC) has said
The HDC confirmed this in a recent Twitter post in which it hinted that the three containers had crossed into Jebel Ali.
“The ability to supply the Chinese market through the Beira corridor will be a game-changer for our industry,” said the twitter post.
Before the shipment, HDC chief executive Mrs Linda Nielsen had observed: “We are cautiously optimistic with this trial run. Beira has come a long way over the past few years.
“In future we will also be looking at other sectors to go through there as well. Citrus is more ready than the others.”
Mrs Nielsen said as this was the first season of sending citrus to China, it was quite exciting though success hinged on meeting all required cold sterilisation in transit.
The council is hoping that there be empty trucks returning to Beira that will be able to take citrus from Zimbabwe. This will reduce transaction costs.
The HDC, however, maintained that efficient cold storage facilities for sterilisation and controlled atmosphere refrigeration were crucial.
The increase in lemon exports has also been attributed to the realisation of the health benefits associated with citrus products consumption, as well as various useful goods derived from the crop.
Among citrus products are fresh fruit, juice, oil, citric acid as well animal feeds produced from its by-products.
Meanwhile, the Government and China finalised the citrus trade protocol last year that was meant to facilitate export of citrus products to the Asian country in order to broaden market scope for the country.
This was in fulfilment of the process that was initiated in 2015 when the country sought a market for Shashi Irrigation Scheme smallholder citrus growers.
The Chinese market has the added advantage of short distance but to capitalise on these there is need to build up volumes of the citrus product for the Mozambique port.
The need for the country’s perishable horticulture products to shift from being shipped from the Durban port to Beira in Mozambique deserves thorough attention if events of unrest and disturbances that affected the Durban port in 2021 are to be avoided.
Many growers lost incomes due to delays at the port with some of the produce being destroyed as it had passed the sale-by date.
In another twitter post the HDC said the country can establish between 8 000 and 10 000 hectares by 2030, though a maximum of 20 000ha was possible with investment incentives and financing tailored to citrus investment’s long-term nature that requires patient capital.
Current efforts by stakeholders in the citrus industry under the Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan (HRGP) have seen the revival of Chegutu, as a citrus hub from the current 127ha to 350ha this year on four A2 farms, with phase three of the project targeting 1 000ha.
In the past Chegutu district used to have 650ha under commercial citrus production.
“With water guaranteed, 5 800ha of citrus can be established in Chegutu alone,” said the twitter post.
Zimbabwe is currently producing citrus far below its potential, with only an estimated 3 200 hectares of land under commercial production, said the HDC in a recent media brief.
Online Reporter