Interview: Opening up of Chinese market adds vitality to Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector

HARARE, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — The opening up of the Chinese market to Zimbabwean agricultural produce has added momentum to the country’s efforts in diversifying exports, a senior official from Zimbabwe’s ruling party has said.
Christopher Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party Politburo member and ZANU PF secretary for information and publicity, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the country is willing to capitalize on China’s high-level opening up to boost development.
“It’s an exciting period for African agriculture now that China has developed a substantial middle-class population. Their palates are changing, they are also getting interested in food from diverse regions beyond China. And they have the spending power, the disposable income to afford to buy any good quality food from anywhere else in the world,” said Mutsvangwa, who is also a former Zimbabwean ambassador to China.
In recent years, an increasing variety of agricultural products from the southern African country have made their way into the Chinese market, driven by China’s opening of its market to African products and the implementation of preferential policies to expand imports from African countries.
During the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in early September, China and Zimbabwe signed a protocol for phytosanitary requirements for the exports of Zimbabwean avocados to China.
Mutsvangwa said Africa has not been able to produce enough food due to a lack of investment in agriculture, which resulted in food insecurity despite the abundance of agricultural land.
“There was a lack of investment in African agriculture. The investment in African agriculture by the Western countries was in fancy food crops and other crops not for consumption, like cocoa and tobacco. These were crops which the Western countries wanted for their industries,” he said.
With the arrival of China and other Asian countries with a large middle class, there has been a demand for quality African produce, he said. “So, this is a chance for African agriculture to become part of the global food value chain.”
On the production of tobacco, one of Zimbabwe’s major foreign currency earners, Mutsvangwa said demand for the tobacco leaf in China created a lucrative and ready market for Zimbabwean tobacco.
“The biggest tobacco company in the world, China Tobacco, came to Zimbabwe in 2004 and started investing. And today, the tobacco trade alone is millions of U.S. dollars with China,” said Mutsvangwa.
Following the success of exporting crops such as tobacco to China, Zimbabwe is now aiming to diversify into other produce, he said. “We are very happy that China has now allowed Zimbabwean citrus (into the Chinese market). We need to increase our production because this is a huge market. Remember, it’s 1.4 billion people. So our current production is still very much below what China expects.”
He noted that with a green light given to citrus and macadamia exports to China, Zimbabwe also has the potential to export sesame and other agricultural produce. “I see a very very bright prospect and I am happy now that our customs department and our phytosanitary departments in agriculture are exchanging information and signing agreements. And Chinese teams are coming to inspect the potential of Zimbabwe.”
With the expanding trade portfolio, trade figures between China and Zimbabwe have shown a positive trajectory.
Commenting on Zimbabwe’s imports from China, he said more Chinese agricultural equipment and machinery can also find their way into the Zimbabwean market as the growing trade in agricultural products creates new opportunities.
“So, the prospects are very promising, both in the trade for crops and in the buying of equipment from China, but also in capital investment by Chinese food giants to make sure that we have a complete value chain from the field in Zimbabwe to the supermarket in China,” Mutsvangwa said. ■