Zimbabwe's industrialisation drive is facing a new challenge as manufacturers increasingly struggle to secure locally produced inputs, exposing a widening gap between the country's resource-rich economy and its production sector.

Despite Zimbabwe's vast agricultural and mineral wealth, local factories are sourcing more than half of their raw materials from outside the country, raising concerns that opportunities for value addition, job creation and domestic investment are being lost within fragmented supply chains.

Manufacturers sourced 54 percent of their raw materials from foreign markets in 2025, compared to 52 percent in 2023, as local industries battled shortages of key inputs needed to sustain production.

The trend is being driven by availability rather than cost, with 59 percent of manufacturers indicating that local raw materials are either unavailable or insufficient to meet demand.

The figures suggest that while Zimbabwe continues to produce agricultural commodities and mineral resources, many of these products are not being transformed into industrial inputs required by local factories.

As a result, manufacturers are increasingly importing materials that could potentially be produced domestically through stronger value chains and increased investment in intermediate industries.

The challenge is most visible in sectors that are central to industrial growth.

Other manufacturing industries, including pharmaceuticals, imported 80 percent of their raw materials, while textile producers sourced 75 percent of inputs externally.

Paper and paper products relied on imports for 72 percent of raw materials, while the rubber and plastics sector imported 71 percent of its requirements.

Food manufacturers imported 59 percent of their inputs despite Zimbabwe's strong agricultural base.

The growing disconnect is also reflected in weak industrial integration.

Only seven percent of firms reported strong vertical integration with suppliers and customers, highlighting limited collaboration across production chains.

CZI said the country's resource wealth remains largely disconnected from manufacturing production.

"Zimbabwe has significant agricultural and mining endowments that remain largely unconverted into manufacturing inputs. This is both the sector's most significant structural failure and its most significant untapped opportunity," CZI said.

The organisation warned that the situation is creating a cycle that weakens domestic suppliers and discourages investment.

"The self-reinforcing loop is explicit: imported inputs weaken local suppliers, weak suppliers discourage domestic investment, and low investment perpetuates import dependence," CZI said.

With Zimbabwe pursuing accelerated industrialisation, the challenge is increasingly shifting from producing raw resources to ensuring those resources feed local factories.

CZI said strengthening domestic intermediate industries would be critical in reducing dependence on imported inputs and retaining more value within the local economy.

"The solution may not be broad import substitution but targeted development of a domestic intermediate goods sector linking primary sector endowments to manufacturing inputs," CZI said.

"Without this, manufacturing growth continues to generate foreign exchange outflows while capturing only final-stage margins."

The emerging picture is that Zimbabwe's industrial future may depend less on what the country produces and more on how effectively it connects production to manufacturing.