Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera
TRADE ties between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU) continue to grow, with Harare’s trade surplus with the bloc rising by 17 percent from US$206 million in 2021 to US$242 million in 2025.
A trade surplus occurs when a country exports goods and services with a higher value than it imports.
Countries from the 27-member bloc are expected to participate at the 66th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), which takes place from April 20 to 25 in Bulawayo.
An X post from the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe last week read: “We are back! For the 4th year running, the European Union is heading to ZITF in Bulawayo from 20-25 April. The #Team Europe Pavilion will bring together EU member state embassies, world-class European companies and impactful EU-funded projects — all under one roof.”
Data from TradeMap, a web-based trade statistics platform of the International Trade Centre (ITC), shows that Zimbabwe exported goods worth US$559 million to the EU in 2025.
It also imported products worth US$318 million over the same period, resulting in a trade surplus of US$242 million.
Key members of the EU include France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes were the main export that saw the country raking in US$217 million, followed by edible fruit and nuts, and peel of citrus fruit or melons, at US$113 million.
Iron and steel was at US$93 million, with natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals in fourth place at S$34 million, while salt, sulphur, earths and stone, plastering materials, lime and cement completed the top five spot at US$30 million.
Raw hides and skins (other than fur skins) and leather were the sixth-largest export, earning Zimbabwe another US$30 million.
Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances occupied the first spot on Zimbabwe’s main imports list, at US$83 million, followed by vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, which cost US$44 million.
Pharmaceutical products worth US$23 million were imported, with miscellaneous chemical products fourth at US$21 million, while printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry consumed US$18 million to complete the top five imports.
Zimbabwe’s trade surplus rose by 17 percent to US$241,58 million last year from US$206,19 million in 2021.
Earlier this year, eight buyers from the UK and EU visited Zimbabwe for a week-long tour of 11 farms and food businesses that export to their markets through ITC.
The trade mission was organised by the UK Trade Partnerships Programme, funded by the UK government and implemented by ITC.
The delegation visited farms and processing plants in Harare, Mutorashanga, Mvurwi, Chegutu, Shurugwi and Mutare.
The UK and EU are the dominant markets for Zimbabwe’s horticultural products, with Netherlands alone accounting for over 50 percent.
Last month, the UKinZimbabwe official X handle disclosed that buyers from the UK trade mission “visited Mondynes Farm, Forrester Estate and Eden Chase where chilli peppers, peas and blueberries are grown to world-class standards and exported to UK and EU”.
The UK and the Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) empower 5 000 small-scale farmers with skills and resources to grow mangetout and sugar snap peas, as well as providing employment for women as graders and packers.
Zimbabwe supplies 60 percent of UK’s sugar snaps. Last year, the UK Minister for Africa, Lord Ray Collins of Highbury, visited local horticulture packhouses to witness the processing of peas from smallholder farmers before export to his country.
The EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries signed EPAs with the overall objective of leveraging trade and investment for sustainable development, thereby contributing to eradicating poverty.
EPAs are permanent partnerships that encourage a progressive shift from aid to trade and investment as engines of growth, job creation and poverty reduction.
They entail rights and obligations for both EU and ACP countries.
They offer zero tariffs and unlimited quantities (duty- and quota-free) for all products (except for arms).
The EPAs, the EU said, also have flexible conditions (rules of origin) under which exporters in EPA countries could easily source from elsewhere the inputs they need to make their final products without losing their free access to the bloc.
EPA partners do not pay tariffs or duties on their exports to the EU, while they open their markets only partially to the EU (on average 80 percent), with long transition periods for doing so.
Safeguard measures can be activated if surges in imports of EU products disturb local markets.
The agreements support ACP countries’ efforts to develop new industries and diversify their economies by shifting their reliance on commodities to higher-value products and services.
