By Rungano Dzikira

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) and ZimTrade, have said they managed to reach out to the European agriculture markets through a joint venture with Palladium International, a UK based trade partner for Zimbabwe after holding a successful joint agriculture outward trade mission in Birmingham, UK last week.

“The mission afforded Zimbabwean smallholder farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs a chance for business to business linkage and export opportunities in the UK,” said ZimTrade CEO, Allan Majuru.

“The trade exercise main objectives were to explore horticultural strategies, working with smallholder farmers and the exploration of ways for better entry into UK markets by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.”

The trade mission to the UK was a joint exercise by the department of International Trade in the UK and ZimTrade, (an exports promotion body in the country).

Speaking in the capital, Palladium International’s official, Zenzo Sibanda said, it was exciting to get to know the UK business environment to meet up with key business people and their keenness to do business with Zimbabwean smallholder farmers.

“There were lots of business to business linkage opportunities for some Zimbabwe businesses that were showcasing in the UK, which was one of the key outcomes from this mission.

“There are loads of entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe and we saw the evidence in the UK, it’s exciting to see this linkage meeting resulting in actual business ventures,” he said.

Palladium International works closely with ZimTrade on smallholder farmers in the country on capacity building, funding and linkages to export markets.

ZNCC added that it was exciting that there was a lot to learn and a lot of contributions to smallholder farmers during the outward trade mission in the UK.

Zimbabwe’s economy is anchored on agriculture and mining, treasury has been on a drive to encourage and re-ignite agricultural exports of horticultural produce amongst smallholder farmers in a bid grow exports receipts.