ZIMBABWE last year exported horticultural products to the European Union (EU) worth $61, 42 million, Eurostat figures show.
But the country is still a long way off from making significant strides into the EU market, whose total 2015 imports from around the world amounted to a staggering $59,39 billion.
Zimbabwe’s horticultural exports to the EU last year amounted to a mere 0,10 percent of the regional bloc’s overall horticultural imports market.
And it has maintained the same percentage share since 2013, which was, however, a marginal gain from the 0,077 percent recorded in 2012, the Eurostat figures show.
Eurostat is the statistical office of the EU. Zimbabwe’s significant markets for horticultural products in the EU in 2015 were Netherlands, which imported $39, 86 million worth of horticultural products, followed by United Kingdom which imported products to the tune of $13,92 million, and Germany, which imported $1, 66 million horticulture products from the country. Other key markets during the same period include France, Portugal and Spain, which imported horticultural products from Zimbabwe to the tune of $1, 55 million, $1,3 million and $1,23 million, respectively.
The stats indicate that Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain have generally maintained the trend of being the top takers of Zimbabwe’s horticultural products between 2012 and 2015.
And over the past four years, Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the leading consumers of the country’s horticultural products, respectively.
Despite Zimbabwe accounting for a very low stake of the EU’s total annual horticultural imports, the stats show a gradual — albeit marginal — increase in the country’s exports into the EU market.
In 2012, Zimbabwe’s exports to the EU stood at 38,5 million, rising to $52 million in 2013 and further to $53,5 million in 2014.
Local horticultural production for the export market currently involves flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, essential oils and tree nuts.
According to the Horticultural Promotion Council of Zimbabwe (HPCZ), the main export crops include temperate fruits (apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, nectarine and grape); tropical fruits and vegetables (baby corn, butternut, citrus, chilli, gem squash, kiwi, lychee, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and tamarillo); out of season fruit and vegetables (asparagus, baby carrots, fine beans, cherry tomatoes, courgettes, mange tout peas, melon, strawberries and sweet corn), and flowers (protea, roses, chrysanthemum, liatris, aster, chelone, euphorbia, trachelium, ammi majus, statice and delphinium). — BH24