Zimbabwe, DRC trade to expand

THERE is significant scope to expand trade between Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including huge opportunities for Zimbabwean exporters to supply products and services to the Great Lakes country.

Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ambassador Albert Chimbindi said this yesterday while officiating the Zimbabwe – DRC Business Forum, which was held as part of the DRC inward buyer mission.

Hosted by trade promotion and development body, ZimTrade, the forum brought together businesses from the two countries to discuss areas of potential cooperation.

The DRC delegation currently in the country comprises companies in the fast-moving consumer goods, mining supplies and consumables, agriculture as well as building and construction sectors.

On the other hand, local participating companies were drawn from the food-processing, building, construction, mining, and engineering services sectors.

The mission seeks to promote Zimbabwe’s product visibility and potentially avail local exporters with a chance to enter a lucrative market in the Central African country.

It also intends to drive local brand awareness, generate new market leads, build new partnerships, and showcase domestic products.

As it stands, the number of Zimbabwean companies doing business in the DRC has been increasing, as reflected by the growth in trade volume, which grew to US$87 million in 2022 from US$32 million in 2018.

Zimbabwe mainly exports coal, coke and coking of coal, plastic and other plastic articles, machinery, cereals, and cigarettes while the country imports cobalt oxides and hydroxide, copper, wood, and articles of wood, textiles, and starches.

DRC exports to Zimbabwe increased to US$3,5 million in 2022 from US$92 000 in 2020. Trade statistics show that local products such as sweets, yogurt, biscuits, cheese, tinned foods, peanut butter, honey, sugar, cooking oil, soap and washing powder can compete well in the DRC market.

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and horticultural products have a ready market in the DRC.

FMCGs in particular have huge potential given the DRC’s limited manufacturing capacity, which sees the country rely on processed food imports from across the world.

Also, the DRC’s horticulture market provides immense opportunities for local producers as fresh produce in DRC is sourced from markets as far as Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

“The purpose of this trade mission is to unpack the trade opportunities that exist between our two countries, to increase trade. There is immense potential to grow Trade between Zimbabwe and DRC.

“As we gather here today, we represent the boundless potential of economic cooperation that exists in both our countries and business spheres. I look forward to further engagements in support of trade promotion programmes and events, as we strive to diversify and increase our exports to meet the US$14 billion target by 2030,” said Ambassador Chimbindi.

Zimbabwe and the DRC are both members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional trading blocs, which provide a platform for companies from the two jurisdictions to trade duty-free and quota-free on a reciprocal basis in the qualifying products.

“I urge business entities in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe to take advantage of these policies and measures to expand trade. I would like to encourage Congolese businesses to explore the many trade opportunities for partnership and collaboration with their Zimbabwean counterparts,” he said.

Lubumbashi’s relative proximity to Zimbabwe, compared to other places in the DRC, makes it easier and cheaper for local companies to export goods and transport them easily by road or air.

Local companies can also provide accessories and services in the construction sector given the booming construction business in the DRC.

Products with potential include door frames, window frames, floor tiles, fencing material, roofing tiles, bricks, PVC pipes, door frames, gum poles, timber, fasteners, bathroom boutique products, and electrical products.

ZimTrade director of operations Mr Similo Nkala said the mission was evidence of the fruition of his organisation’s bid to grow Zimbabwe’s trade with the DRC over the last 7 years, having started with participating in the DRC Mining Week in 2018, followed by several inward and outward trade missions.

“We extended our presence in the DRC to two new provinces, namely Likasi and Kolwezi, providing our local companies an opportunity to engage and explore opportunities with more companies within the DRC market.

“Their being here presents an opportunity for you, our local manufacturers and producers to engage and identify areas of trade and mutual collaboration with them.

“… this is to consolidate any existing business but more importantly to identify new areas for collaboration,” said Mr Nkala.

FEC Katanga vice president Mr Lambert Tshisueka said his country was ready to do business with Zimbabwe and that the DRC wanted to increase its import network from Zimbabwe given the abundance of imports that are sought from the European Union, South Africa, and other African countries.

“Also, most of our products are imported, I would like you to know that most of our products are imported, not less than 20 000 products are imported, so you can supply our various supermarkets.

“One thing that is in the pipeline is the production of soft drinks in collaboration with Coca-Cola, we would like to cooperate with Zimbabwe in areas of sugar, which means my presence here.”

Also representing the DRC delegation, Mr Piere Kwete of Super Marche MOTA, whose firm is into FMCGs trading, said the real estate industry was one of the booming sectors in his country, which presented huge opportunities to supply construction materials.

“The DRC is like a baby who is coming up, so there lies a lot of opportunity as we seek to source our supplies.

“Sourcing things from Zimbabwe is like sourcing from our own home, we are confident we are going to close meaningful deals from this mission,” said Mr Kwete.

Previous engagements saw some farmers from the DRC coming through to Zimbabwe for the Seed Co Farm Field Day and negotiations were in progress to purchase seed from Zimbabwe amounting to US$250 000.

An exploration mission was also conducted to Kinshasa, DRC to explore beef market opportunities and modalities on how to deliver the product to that market are still underway.

-herald