Horticulture strategic to export sector growth: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's horticultural sector is essential to economic recovery and is strategic in respect of the enhancement of the country's export receipts.

Local horticultural production includes products such as cut flowers, fruit and tropical fruit, and out of season fruit and vegetables. At its peak during the late 1990s horticulture was the second largest agricultural foreign exchange earner after tobacco, recording exports figures in 1999 of US$144 million.

During that period horticulture contributed an average of 4 percent to Growth Domestic Product. However, like any other sector in Zimbabwe it has suffered from the macro-economic strictures that resulted from the decade long downturn, and has reflected in a fluctuating trend over the years.

Nonetheless, with the 2010 agricultural sector reflecting a steady growth path augmented by ramped up tobacco output, the horticulture sector is also expected to be bullish by the close of this year.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation, and Irrigation Development, the horticulture sector output could hit the 43 000 tonne mark up from the 2009 figure of 35 000 tonnes, in line with the 18,8 percent projected growth for the year.

As aforementioned horticulture is quite strategic to the growth of the country's export sector as most of its products tend to be destined for the European market, but it is also important in another key economic area, that is, labour. In so far as the horticulture sector is labour intensive - on average any one new horticultural project can add 25 to 30 jobs per hectare - hence growth of the sector can simultaneously function to boost employment levels.

These requirements are constituted in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (also known as the SPS Agreement) is an international treaty of the World Trade Organisation.

Under the SPS agreement, the WTO determines limitations on member-states' policies relating to food safety around issues such as bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection, labelling and animal and plant health (phytosanitary).

According to ZimTrade, during the ten year period between 1999 and 2008, Zimbabwean horticulture's export receipts declined by around 80 percent, from US$144 million in 1999 to US$24 million, this in contrast to an consistently expanding global horticulture market.
Source: http://bit.ly/aGxyZz