THE business community has welcomed the proposed suspension of customs duty on critical production inputs, saying the measure will boost capacity utilisation, preserve scarce working capital, and align Zimbabwe with its commitments under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Presenting the 2026 National Budget recently, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube announced that, effective January 1, 2026, the country will suspend customs duty on selected inputs. “Mr Speaker Sir, under the Customs and Excise legislation, some raw materials, intermediate goods and capital equipment attract import duties ranging from five to 25 percent. While duty serves to protect domestic industries, in some instances it increases production costs, particularly for manufacturers reliant on imported inputs not locally available in sufficient quantities or quality,” Prof Ncube said.
Minister Mthuli Ncube
He said elevated input costs have constrained industrial productivity, reduced export competitiveness, and discouraged value addition and beneficiation across key sectors.
“Mr Speaker Sir, I therefore propose to introduce a structured and time-bound suspension of import duty on critical production inputs for eligible industries, targeting the following sectors, among others, with significant backward and forward linkages: iron and steel production, particularly inputs used in smelting, rolling and fabrication; and agro-processing, including edible oils and food processing additives. These measures take effect from January 1, 2026,” he said.
Prof Ncube added that the intervention will enhance Zimbabwe’s ability to leverage opportunities under AfCFTA by enabling producers to meet regional quality and price competitiveness standards.
Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe (OEAZ) representative and Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) chair Dr Busisa Moyo said the removal of duty will improve capacity utilisation and preserve increasingly scarce working capital.
Dr Busisa Moyo
Players under OEAZ have grown from three in 2010 to eight currently and have invested over US$100 million in both foreign and local capital since dollarisation in 2009.
Although Zimbabwe’s cooking oil sector is a strong model of localised value chains, producing all cooking oil locally, it requires about 180 000 tonnes of oil annually — achievable only from one million tonnes of oilseeds grown on about 500 000 hectares.
The Crops, Horticulture, Fisheries and Livestock Summer Plan 2025–26 targets soya beans on 77 000 ha, sunflower on 160 000 ha, and cotton on 270 000 ha. This hectarage cannot meet local demand, necessitating imports. If oilseed imports are levied, cooking oil and stock feed prices will rise.
Even though oil expressers buy and consume all locally produced oilseeds — supporting farmers through inputs and agronomy services under contract farming — local supply remains insufficient. One company, Chiseller Services, said it was contracting soya beans on 400 hectares, but output still falls short of requirements.
Chiseller Services owner Mr Francois Kriel said local production costs are high, making it difficult to compete with countries producing low-cost genetically modified (GMO) soya beans, and welcomed the extension of duty suspension.
Stockfeed Manufacturers Association of Zimbabwe executive administrator Dr Reneth Mano said the Government is taking the right step to catch up on AfCFTA’s de-tariffication schedule.
“Remember that under AfCFTA, Zimbabwe has already made commitments to reduce import tariffs. It is terribly behind schedule on reducing tariffs on some categories of agro-industrial materials,” he said.-herald
