ZimTrade urges Chiredzi farmers to take up garlic production for export

Source: ZimTrade urges Chiredzi farmers to take up garlic production for export | The Herald

Garlic

Michael Tome Business reporter

NATIONAL trade development and promotion body, ZimTrade has started sensitising garlic farmers on the crop’s export potential and requirements for export markets.

This follows an outreach visit to Chiredzi by ZimTrade to provide guidance on ways to resolve challenges faced by garlic farmers, particularly in terms of production timing and export market requirements.

ZimTrade said it would assist farmers in the Lowveld to break into lucrative export markets for Zimbabwean garlic and establish the area as a garlic export cluster in the country.

Farai Musikavanhu, the legislator for Chiredzi West, has already initiated garlic multiplier projects in his constituency where hubs have been established to intensify garlic production.

Addressing stakeholders in the garlic production chain in Chiredzi, ZimTrade’s client advisor, export development Kupakwashe Midzi cited formalisation through the establishment of consortiums as critical for easy coordination of marketing of the crop, especially focussing on the export market.

Mr Midzi further pointed out that ZimTrade was well positioned to assist in areas that require technical assistance for producers to meet quality export standards for garlic.

“Export market requires us to come up with formalised agriculture cooperatives so that we cultivate a quality crop suitable for export and as well as have reasonable amounts for to that effect, not only for garlic but other crops as well, because the crop will just be recognised as Zimbabwean crop

“We would like to help farmers in Chiredzi to come up with formalised groups, which makes it easy to identify Zimbabwean produce,” highlighted Mr Midzi.

He further revealed that ZimTrade had set up some incubation programmes for the youths and women to inculcate knowledge and expertise on growing crops or manufacturing for export markets.

“At ZimTrade we have a programme for youths commonly referred to as Eagle’s Nest where we assist the youths to acquire skills on how to do farming or manufacture for the export markets, we also have SHE exporter to help women in the export business,” added Mr Midzi.

Alex Mutandi, ZimTrades’ export promotion officer, said the trade promotion body’s duty involved market research for local products on the international level.

“ZimTrade’s duty is to look for external markets for our local products, our organisation constantly conducts surveys and researches across the world, finding out the kind of opportunities that can be taken up by Zimbabwean producers and identifying the buyers for that product.

“When you say, for instance, we would want to export our garlic to South Africa — we help in identifying some set benchmarks of the garlic that is required in South Africa because requirements differ from country to country so that is the kind of information we are always ready to search for you for free,” said Mr Mutandi.

According to Mr Musikavanhu, he encountered marketing challenges for the crop he grew last year, and has enlisted ZimTrade to provide guidance on marketing the crop beyond the local markets.

“Last year we embarked on the garlic project but it became unclear to us especially on the marketing procedure of the crop, particularly on the export market and I must say I was very frustrated, it was not clear on the marketing side,” he said.

Mr Musikavanhu implored authorities to continue facilitating access to export markets since there was oversupply of garlic locally but high demand for the crop in other countries.

“According to my research we have saturated the local market with the product, but we fall short of garlic demand beyond the Zimbabwean borders, we should be able to exploit that,” he added.