Zimbabwean garlic growers have been urged to increase exports to take full advantage of a growing global market. The latter has expanded from US$500 million to US$2,48 billion in the past two decades.
National trade development and promotion organisation ZimTrade said the number of local smallholder growers with the potential to export has grown exponentially over the past few years. “Currently the interest generated by smallholder growers, regardless of land size, is an indication that they have the potential to contribute more to national exports. What is now crucial is identifying crops that are relatively high value and can be produced by smallholder growers on a commercial scale. Garlic is one of these.”
Garlic capacity development will need to be considered as the horticulture sector is one of the priority areas identified by the National Export Strategy, launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2019.
Given the growing global demand for healthy food to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and chronic diseases, local growers should take advantage of this, ZimTrade added.
Source: cbn.co.za
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