Zimbabwe’s export promotion and development agency, ZimTrade has secured funding for a capacity building program on the cultivation and certification of organic garlic which has seen soaring demand on the international market in the last few months.
The agency’s CEO Allan Majuru revealed this last week while speaking with garlic farmers at Guzha Primary School in Gutu District during the official launch of Gutu Central Constituency Garlic Export Program led and funded by Member of Parliament Winston Chitando.
The project follows Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which seeks to broaden the country’s export basket and grow export earnings as the economy gears towards upper middle-income status as championed by President Mnangagwa.
Local and international demand for garlic has been on the rise during two decades with the market growing from about US$500 million to US$2.4 billion in 2020. Zimbabwe is now positioning itself for a seat on this growing market.
President Mnangagwa remarks were delivered in a speech read on his behalf by the ruling Zanu PF party’s Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu.
“Mr (Basil) Nyabadza (TGPA) chairman talked about the production of organic garlic, from which I am pleased to tell you that there are some development partners who have availed funding for us to undertake capacity building in organic garlic production,” ZimTrade CEO Mr Allan Majuru told farmers.
“For you to export organic garlic they need certification, so we will bring those international partners so that they train our farmers in the same manner we did with organic pineapple farmers in Chimanimani and they are already exporting to Netherlands.
Majuru said there is a huge scope for value addition and the export agency was already working with a local company which has started garlic value addition and is exporting garlic oil to Botswana.
Apart from targeting rural farmers with the export crop potential of US$40 000, the Gutu project intends to build 37 schools in the constituencies with ginger and garlic farmers. The crops are expected to be alternated with garlic running March to October and ginger November to February.