Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
Cletus Mushanawani in Tete, Mozambique
Zimbabwe’s national trade promotion and development body, ZimTrade, is this week facilitating the engagement of Zimbabwean companies with potential partners in Mozambique during the Outward Seller Mission to Tete.
The Outward Seller Mission will run from today until Friday and is aimed at exploring export opportunities in the mining province of Mozambique.
Last year, ZimTrade had a highly successful Outward Seller Mission in the city of Chiomio in Manica Province, Mozambique, where business worth more than US$1 million was realised.
In May, Zimbabwe made significant strides towards increasing trade with Mozambique, following the successful State visit to Zimbabwe by President Filipe Nyusi.
During the visit, several Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed to strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries.
ZimTrade signed an MOU with its Mozambican counterparts, with the aim of increasing trade relations and exploring trade potential.
The Second Republic’s economic diplomacy agenda, designed to unlock value from Zimbabwe’s good political relations with the rest of the world, continue to bear positive fruits with the country’s exports to Mozambique growing by 80 percent between January and April this year compared to the same period last year.
ZimTrade operations director, Similo Nkala said the focus on Tete was meant to unlock opportunities in areas proximity to Zimbabwe, which will make it easy for local companies to land products in the market.
“The Tete Province, being a mining town in proximity to Zimbabwe, offers lucrative opportunities for local companies to expand their trade in mining supplies and other sectors.
“As such this province presents huge trade opportunities and potential, which we intend to tap into during this outward trade mission, for increased business collaboration between Zimbabwe and Mozambique”, said Mr Nkala.
According to the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStat), trade between Zimbabwe and Mozambique had increased by 80,7 percent between January and April 2023 compared to the same period last year from US$58 million to US$106 million.
The growth in trade with Mozambique also points to successes recorded by the National Export Strategy, whose target also include diversifying export markets, which will help address challenges that may arise because of over reliance on South Africa.
Following the jump, Mozambique is now the countries’ fourth largest export market for Zimbabwe. With the upcoming African Continental Free Trade Area, the need for strategic partnerships has become even more crucial.
Indications are that with increased linkages between Zimbabwean exporters and buyers in Mozambique, facilitated by ZimTrade and partners, will help further grow trade between the two countries.
Over 15 Zimbabwean companies, drawn from sectors such as agriculture inputs and implements, mining and mining services, fast-moving consumer goods, as well as protective clothing, will also engage in business-to-business meetings with distributors, where focus will be on areas such as order quantities, specific product qualities, and market entry expectations.
The outward trade mission will be attended by officials from both countries and private sector players, including Secretary of State Tete Province, Mr Elisa Zacarias and Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Mozambique, Victor Matemadanda.
The event business meetings, and local companies will have the opportunity to visit some of Tete’s biggest suppliers in a bid to boost trade.