By Staff Writer

Zimbabwe’s exports were estimated at US$4.39 billion in 2020, a marginal 2.7% increase from US$4.28 billion in 2019, in a tough year in which COVID-19 heavily disrupted commodity demand and hampered trade links.

In a bid to mitigate the commodity demand disruptions on the global market, Government eased regulations on value addition and beneficiation policy and minerals still dominated exports.

 The country’s exports are still made up mostly primary commodities, largely minerals.

Of the US$4.4 billion earned from exports, minerals accounted for US$3.2 billion, a massive 73% of all our exports. Gold lost its sparkle and top spot on the official exports dashboard, partly due to smuggling and reduced production.

Traditionally, gold has been Zimbabwe’s biggest export. This changed in 2020, a year in which gold deliveries dipped by 31% to reach 19.1 tonnes, the lowest output in six years.

In 2020, Zimbabwe exported US$985 million worth of mattes, just beating gold at US$982 million into second place.

As of now, nickel mattes which are really platinum group metals mattes are the biggest exports.

Nickel ores and concentrates earned US$612 million, diamonds earned the country US$141 million, ferroalloys US$140 million and platinum brought in US$134 million.

Meanwhile, data from ZimTrade shows that the country exported more processed food in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Last year exports rose 17, 96% to US$115 million from US$98 million in 2019.

These exports were dominated by sugar, which earned US$76 million. Others included fruit juices (US$5, 6 million) and pastry products (US$3, 7 million).

Economic analyst, Terrence Chabayanzara said the increase in exports can be attributed to investment in better technologies by the local producers as well as their adoption of global standards and accreditations on food safety and traceability.