Zim Now Writer
Zimbabwean raw materials that include minerals and crops, dominated the merchandise export list for the month of May, indicating a lack of maximum beneficiation and value-addition, while statistics for the month in review have shown a decline of 17.1 percent in exports compared to the previous month.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has released the latest statistics, showing that the month in review exported merchandise worth US$534.7 million against the previous month’s figure of US$645 million, showing a significant decline of 17.1%.
Commodities on the export list include tobacco partly including cigarettes, Platinum Group of Minerals, gold, ferrochromium, industrial diamonds, coke and semi coke of coal, cotton, crocodiles, chromium and concentrates and corrugated paper, with South Africa, United Arab Emirates topping the list as top export destinations.
According to the statement by the RBZ, the country’s major export destinations were, South Africa (34.6%), United Arab Emirates (34.3%), China (10.4%).
However, the introduction of the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy has shown improved capacity utilisation, with official records showing an improvement from 47% to 56,1% over a two-year period between 2020 and 2022, while locally produced products also increased their shelf-space from 55% in 2021 to over 80% in 2022, aided by an increasing export percentage in manufactured products of 12.9% from US$324 million in 2021 to US$366 million in 2022.
The country has witnessed a huge margin of losses through exporting various raw materials, with unprocessed tobacco exports costing the country a high 60 percent of millions of dollars.
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