Zimbabwe citrus firms gain access to China's massive food market
South China Morning Post
5 min read
Zimbabwe's citrus farmers can now have access to the massive Chinese market after Chinese customs authorities approved a list of orchards and packing houses permitted to export fresh fruit to China.
The Chinese embassy in Harare announced that on June 1 the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) listed 11 registered Zimbabwean citrus orchards and six citrus packing houses chosen by Chinese authorities to export citrus to China.
"Zimbabwean fresh citrus can now be exported to China, which is the largest market of citrus consumption in the world," the embassy posted on Twitter.
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The embassy revealed that Zimbabwe could now export mandarin oranges, sweet oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes and sour oranges to China.
It said orchards and packing houses seeking to export citrus to China must be registered by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, and approved by both Zimbabwean authorities and Chinese customs.
Zimbabwe has a total of 4,000 hectares of land under citrus cultivation and its climate is well suited to growing the crop. South Africa is the largest producer of citrus fruit and other horticulture on the continent.
As China comes into summer, Zimbabwe's citrus-growing season can help bridge a gap in the Chinese market. When China's domestic citrus production is in its summer off-season, China receives half its citrus imports from the Southern Hemisphere countries Australia and South Africa.
John Basera, Zimbabwe's secretary of agriculture, said the GACC's list of citrus orchards and packing houses was the successful result of groundwork by Zimbabwean growers to export into the Chinese market.
"Now we can export citrus directly to the massive and lucrative People's Republic of China market. This is a big call to ramp up citrus production," Basera said.
He said the country was working on further protocols with China for blueberries, avocados and chillies. Zimbabwe last year exported 57,283 tonnes of citrus produce to Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Britain and Zambia.
The approval comes about a year after Zimbabwe and China finalised the citrus export protocol to ease the movement of products into China and seven years after the process was initiated in 2015 when Harare sought a market in China for its citrus fruit. Zimbabwe had to meet requirements laid out in bilateral phytosanitary protocols.
According to Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, countries have a long path to gain access to the Chinese market because importing most fresh foodstuff "carries the risk of importing secondary species, including pests that could damage China's own food supply, let alone impact population health".
Hence, fruit farmers have to meet standards of quality, stringent plant disease control and safety set by Chinese authorities. The Zimbabwean citrus exported to China must undergo cold treatment.
"The entry of fruit into China is another signal of China's determination to ... diversify its own sources of agricultural goods away from reliance on a few markets, like the United States and Australia," Johnston said.
It also signals that China is determined to foster new export markets between China and Africa, especially in agriculture, because "this not only may help to elevate agricultural productivity for consumption within Africa amid rising populations, but also help to raise rural incomes and foster poverty alleviation accordingly", according to Johnston.
Some African countries have recently signed deals allowing the export of agricultural products such as chillies, cashews, sesame seeds and spices to China.
Tanzania can now export avocados and soybeans to China. Similar deals have been reached for avocados, tea, coffee and roses from Kenya; coffee and soybeans from Ethiopia; beef products from Namibia and Botswana; and coffee from Rwanda. South Africa is China's key source market for fruit such as lemons, grapefruit, oranges and soft citrus.
Observers say the move to allow food products from Africa is also in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping's promise during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2021 to open "green lanes" for African agricultural products into China, speed up inspection and quarantine procedures, and extend the number of products exempt from tariffs.
China last year waived tariffs on 98 per cent of taxable items from dozens of least-developed countries, most of them in Africa.
Currently, the top imports from Zimbabwe are mostly resource-based, including raw tobacco, chromium ore, nickel ore, ferroalloys and granite. Two-way trade between China and Zimbabwe jumped by 29 per cent year on year to reach US$2.43 billion in 2022, with China the third-largest importer of Zimbabwean goods.
Most Chinese exports to Africa are finished products - from textiles to electronics - while African sales to China are dominated by raw materials and unprocessed products, resulting in a trade surplus in China's favour. To help balance trade, Xi promised in November to grow the value of imports from African countries to US$300 billion in the next three years.
