The Sunday Mail
Tichafara Bepe
The country earned more than $3,2 billion from exports in the February to October period, representing a 23 percent jump from the $2,6 billion grossed in the same period last year, as mineral shipments outperformed market expectations, an official report has shown.
Encouragingly, imports of capital goods and raw materials rose markedly, and now account for a quarter of the import bill.
According to the country’s export promotion body, ZimTrade, South Africa — which took in about 49 percent of the country’s total exports — remains the largest market for Zimbabwean products, followed by the United Arab Emirates, accounting for 20 percent of the export market share, and Mozambique at 10 percent.
“The increase (in mineral exports) is attributed to the growth of gold, manganese ores and concentrates’ exports. Also, other minerals exported include nickel ores and concentrates, ferro-chromium, chromium ores and concentrates and unprocessed diamonds among others,” ZimTrade told The Sunday Mail last week.
“Zimbabwe’s overall export performance was driven by growth in minerals and tobacco exports as the largest contributors during the period under review. Mineral exports and unmanufactured tobacco constituted 75 percent of the country’s total exports between February to October 2018.”
Unbeneficiated tobacco raked in over $515,4 million, making up 16 percent of shipments.
Exports in the horticultural sector also jumped to $39 million in the review period from $28,9 million last year led by growth in exports of oranges and mange tout peas, among other produce.
The clothing and textiles sector exports grew by $5,2 million, while the building and construction materials sector exports soared by $4,5 million on the back of increased demand for cement and paint.
“The total contribution of the horticulture and manufactured products’ sectors to the total export bill amounted to 10,2 percent, which is 0,2 percent above the annual target set at 10 percent contribution cumulative year-on-year, with 2018 as the base,” ZimTrade said.
Some sectors, however, bucked the uptrend.
Exports of processed foods and beverages sector dipped to $76,7 million from $83 million last year.
“The poor performance by the sector largely indicates the foreign currency challenges that most players in the sector are facing in sourcing of imported raw materials, such as milk and milk products that mainly come from New Zealand, Netherlands, France and Belgium.
“Manufacturers, who also require wheat flour as a raw material, have been affected by foreign currency shortages which have resulted in the inputs being unavailable or in very limited supply, thereby affecting product availability in the whole value chain,” added ZimTrade.
Further, manufactured tobacco’s contribution to exports fell to $24 million from $29 million last year.
The import bill in the review period grew by 27 percent to $5,2 billion from $4,1 billion in 2017, driven by soaring imports of capital goods and raw materials, which chewed up 25 percent of the import bill.
According to ZimTrade, there was a $300 million increase in imports of production-oriented imports such as raw materials, machinery and equipment, fuels and energy.
It is believed that this trend will help promote local production of good quality and competitive export products.
Overall, the trade deficit widened by 34 percent to $2 billion from $1,5 billion in the same period a year earlier.
