This is a best prospect industry sector for this country. Includes a market overview and trade data.
Last Published: 7/24/2019

Overview

Zimbabwe’s growth is highly tied to developments in its agricultural sector.  Following the government’s fast track land reform program, the majority of the new landowners depend on rain fed agriculture rather than irrigating their crops.  As the weather pattern changes and droughts become more frequent, the country has failed to produce enough grain to meet domestic demand.

Leading Sub-Sectors

Tobacco:
Tobacco is the most important cash crop in Zimbabwe in terms of generating foreign exchange.  The government of Zimbabwe expects tobacco output to increase by six percent from 252 million kilograms in the 2018 marketing season to over 270 million kilograms in 2019, but growers had a difficult season due to a mid-season dry spell.  After about four weeks of trading, tobacco prices averaged $1.86 per kg, well below the $2.90 per kg recorded over the corresponding period of 2018.

Soya beans:
Local demand for soya beans is on the increase owing to its multiple uses which include cooking oil, stock feeds and other foods.  The country requires about 220,000 metric tons of soya beans annually for food, feed and other industrial needs.  Soya bean production lags behind demand.  While the country depends on soya bean imports from Zambia and Malawi, the government hoped to reduce imports following the introduction of the command soya bean program in the 2017/18 season.  At farm level, soya beans are a short season crop with a lucrative return on investment, with a cost per hectare structure of between $700 and $900.

Cotton:
Cotton, which is the second most important cash crop in the country, is usually grown under contract farming arrangements where contractors supply production inputs (seed, fertilizer and chemicals) to farmers on loan. At harvest, the contractor buys back the contracted seed cotton, deducts costs of the inputs and pays the contract farmer the remaining balance.  The government forecasts cotton output to fall by over 20 percent from 100,000 metric tons in the 2017/18 season to 80,000 metric tons in the 2018/19 marketing season, thanks to a 27 percent decline in yields from 0.52 metric tons per hectare during th2 2017/18 season to 0.38 tons per hectare in the 2018/19 season in spite of the area under seed cotton production remaining unchanged at about 200,000 hectares. 
Currently, Zimbabwe has capacity to produce 600,000 tons of cotton while the country’s 22 ginners have installed ginning capacity of 750,000 tons per annum.  Certain departments within government now believe that the sector can benefit from adoption of improved seed varieties including GMOs and value addition to increase demand for raw cotton.  Currently, however, there is no political will to fully embrace use of GMOs in cotton production

Opportunities

Given the frequent droughts, there are opportunities in the provision of irrigation equipment needed to divest from purely rain-fed agriculture especially with respect to small scale commercial growers.  Moreover, there are opportunities in the provision of food processing machinery and equipment for agricultural commodities into manufactured goods in line with the policy thrust of value addition to raw materials.  There are also opportunities in the agro-chemicals subsector. In particular, the ZIA emphasizes the need to increase capacity in manufacturing of fertilizer, insecticides, and pesticides.

Web Resources:

Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe
Harare Show Grounds,
Belvedere, Harare,
 Zimbabwe
www.cfuzim.org

Tobacco Industry & Marketing Board
Boka Tobacco Auction Floor Complex,
S. Mazorodze/Stoneridge Roads
Harare
Tel: +263-24-2613263/70/88/95.
www.timb.co.zw 
 
Zimbabwe Farmers Union
102 Fife Avenue/ Sam Nujoma Harare
Tele: +263 242-251861-7
www.zfu.org.zw
 

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