Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe`s economy is transforming from exporting raw material to a an exporter of value added goods, development that complements the Government`s effort of turning around the economy.
Speaking at the launch of the Horticulture Export Revolving Fund today, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube said that the Government was committed to increase the value of agricultural production through value addition and beneficiation.
“Dear Colleagues, we are gathered here to launch the US$30 million Horticulture Export Revolving Fund. You may recall that in the formulation of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) which runs from 2021 to 2025, Government is committed to not only grow the agriculture sector as a major driver of our economic growth, but to increase the value of agricultural production through value addition and beneficiation.
“The main objective is to transform Zimbabwe`s economic structure from one highly dependent on the export of agricultural raw materials, to an economy trading in high value processed goods,” said Professor Ncube.
Professor Ncube said that the setting up of a US$30 million Horticulture Export Revolving Fund (HERF) would go a long way in empowering farmers.
“To this end, the setting up of a US$30 million Horticulture Export Revolving Fund (HERF) (“the Fund”) in line with the 2022 National Budget Statement on the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation, will go a long way in empowering our farmers to start horticulture projects, as well as acquire value addition facilities that will enable dehydrating, freezing, canning, bottling, extracting, juicing and concentrating their produce,” he said.
Furthermore, he informed that Treasury would use funds allocated to it by the International Monetary Fund to expand the horticulture industry.
“It was in the 2022 National Budget Statement that I announced that Zimbabwe had been allocated US$958 million by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as part of a General Allocation of US$650 billion that was released globally to all IMF member countries. It is from these resources that Treasury is targeting strategic sectors such as horticulture expansion and value addition, a sector that has potential to generate foreign currency earnings and create jobs that will have a multiplier effect in growing the economy,” said Professor Ncube.
Professor Ncube added that the HERP Fund has a potential to close the funding gap and spearhead increased productivity, as well as finance bankable projects with a focus on the value addition.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe had been one of Africa`s traditional major exporters of horticultural products, alongside Kenya and Ethiopia for most of the late 1980s up to the early 2000s.
According to the Horticulture Development Council (HDC), the sector employs 18 700 people and has potential to double jobs in the next four years between 2022 and 2025. Moreover, the sector is projected under the Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan to contribute export earnings of US$300 million per year, by 2030.
