ZimTrade trains women, youths on cracking export business

Women, youth-led businesses and smallholder farmers in Mutoko have been trained by ZimTrade
on international marketing, branding and competitiveness to equip them with the requisite skills
to penetrate the export market.

ZimTrade believes the training will capacitate budding entrepreneurs with the skills and attributes
to tap into the export market and enhance their foreign currency earnings.

The trade promotion body’s initiative addresses some of the key challenges upcoming businesses
and smallholder farmers face, including the lack of business and financial management skills as
well as limited access to export markets and export preparedness.

Zimbabwe is looking to promote export-led economic growth in its quest to achieve an upper
middle-income economy status by 2030, as espoused in the National Development Strategy
(NDS1). Women and youths are seen making a significant contribution towards attaining these
aspirations on the back of their demographic advantage.

This has seen ZimTrade engaging in initiatives that seek to capacitate budding entrepreneurs with
skills to enhance their competitiveness on the export market. These were drawn from various
sectors of the economy.

“At least 30 local companies, including youth-led and women-led enterprises, were recently
trained on key elements of international marketing and branding.

“The participants were drawn from various sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods,
horticulture, clothing and textiles, leather, services, and essential oils and cosmetics,” said
ZimTrade.

Among the areas covered include branding and packaging, social media and digital marketing,
negotiation skills as well as value addition to enhance their competitiveness on the export markets.
In line with this, ZimTrade has also begun an export capacitation training programme for 40
smallholder farmers in Mutoko’s Chitora Irrigation Scheme.

Currently, the families who depend on this scheme have at least 0,5 hectares each producing crops
such as tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beans, butternut, cauliflower, water melons and onions among
other crops, for a small profit margin. ZimTrade however, believes these farmers can increase their
earnings through exports, with vast opportunities within the region and across Europe.

“ZimTrade, through its export cluster programme has started engaging smallholder farmers in
Mutoko, to develop their capacities so that they access regional and international markets. The
export cluster programme, among other things, promotes farmer consolidation and export crop
production where they can receive increased profits through additional foreign currency earnings,
which translates to improved lives for their families and their communities,” said ZimTrade.

According to ZimTrade, the provincial cluster programme targets all provinces, focusing on
increasing exports from each province based on their natural endowments.

“In the case of Mutoko District, ZimTrade is leveraging existing structures — like the Chitora
irrigation scheme — and products that are already highly produced in the district with export
potential,” said ZimTrade.

Through export awareness and financial training, the core team of the irrigation scheme will learn
the critical skills needed to ensure that the irrigation scheme runs professionally, which is one of
the requirements for most export markets.

Further to this, ZimTrade will unlock expert advice for the farmers in the irrigation scheme, made
possible through their partnership with PUM from the Netherlands and SES from Germany.

In line with this, ZimTrade will also facilitate engagements between smallholder farmers in
Mutoko and international experts on focused solutions that will see the irrigation scheme improve
production and ensure the scheme attains certification for export markets.
Additionally, the farmers will be assisted with market linkages, especially countries in the region
such as Mozambique, where products are already being exported informally.-The Herald