Cletus Mushanawani in TETE, Mozambique
ZimTrade’s outward trade mission to the Tete Province of Mozambique was a roaring success, with both the organisers and participants expressing satisfaction on the business generated and high levels of engagement.The country’s national trade development and promotion agency this week led a high-powered delegation of 15 companies from various economic sectors to the outward trade mission in Tete Province to identify business and trade opportunities in the neighbouring country.
Tete is 325 kilometres from Harare, and offers vast opportunities for local companies, especially in the agriculture, mining and food processing industries, hence the picking of players from these strategic sectors to participate in the outward trade seller mission which ran from Monday to today.
The agriculture sector is a key focus for the Mozambican government and a key activity in the northern part of the Tete Province.
Tete Province also has a high concentration of smallholder farmers.
Additionally, there are strategic governmental programmes to support commercial farming in the area. This presents opportunities for local companies to ride on this demand and supply agriculture inputs and implements into the Tete market.
Zimbabwean companies have the potential to supply products like seeds, chemicals, treated poles, tractor-drawn implements, hand tools, chemicals and fertilisers among others.
More opportunities for trade in the province lie in the mining sector. The province is known as a mining province and as such houses some of the biggestmines in Africa. Moatize Coal Mine is one of the world’s biggest coal mines by reserves.
With Tete being a mining province, it offers lucrative opportunities for local companies to expand their trade in mining supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
Since the State visit by Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi in May this year, and the tripartite signing of Memoranda Of Understandings (MOUs) for investment and trade between the two countries, there has been an improvement in the pursuit of increased trade between the two countries.
State Secretary for Tete Province, Elias Zacarias said the ZimTrade outward seller mission to her province enhances trade opportunities, providing
a platform to address the challenges of the private sector at the provincial and regional levels.
“This trade mission is also a platform for the continued strengthening of the historical, political, friendship and even family ties between our two countries, taking a step towards increasing business and economic relations.
“It is important to mention that Tete province borders Zimbabwe through the districts of Changara, Cahora Bassa and Mágoè, and most of these districts have great economic potential, in areas such as agriculture, fisheries, mineral resources and hotels and tourism.
“On the other hand, Tete Province constitutes an access corridor to the other neighbouring countries, signatories of bilateral and multilateral commercial protocols.
“In fact, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have bilateral agreements in force for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, as well as Customs exemption on goods with certificate of origin,” said Madam Zacaris.
She added: “It is also important to mention that Mozambique, particularly the province of Tete, in recent years, has registered an increase of traders from
Zimbabwe who practice various activities, from formal to informal.
“There is also a growing trend of exports from Tete province to Zimbabwe, mainly of products such as dried fish (kapenta), cotton, among others, dictated by demand and supply.”
In an interview, ZimTrade operations director, Similo Nkala who was leading the trade mission said: “Companies that we have brought to this outward mission to Tete that has been running this week have had interesting and successful discussions with potential buyers here that include two of the biggest mines in Mozambique, which are Jindal Africa Coal Mine and Moatize Coal Mine.
“Companies like Verify Engineering, Midlands Metals and others that are part of this outward mission have heard interesting discussions where some of them will be able to supply samples of their products.
“Some will be sending orders in the near future so that they will be able to be in the supply chain of these companies. We hope this mission will see an increase in our exports of value-added products.
“If we look at the current product of exports to Mozambique, it is mostly primary products, therefore, this mission will actually open doors for those companies that want to supply value added products.”
Verify Engineering chief executive officer, Engineer Pedzie Tapfumaneyi described the outward trade mission as a game changer.
“Last year in August we were in Maputo for another event which was organised by ZimTrade. During that visit, we managed to follow-up on the promise which was done by the Mozambican Health Minister to import gas from our company and we signed a contract to set-up tanks at three of their hospitals in Beira, Chimoio and Tete.
“I am happy to announce that the tanks are now in Mozambique and we are now busy installing them.
“During the Maputo visit, we managed to secure companies that will be our agents in the distribution of our products in Mozambique, especially the liquid oxygen also known as medical oxygen.
“We are supplying an average of 70 tonnes of liquid every two months,” said Engineer Tapfumaneyi.
He added: “This second time around, we were once again invited by ZimTrade and we are now in Tete. This trip will be a game changer definitely for us because ZimTrade has managed to link us with very large corporates in the Tete Province that include Cabora Bassa Hydro-electric Power Station and big mining companies like Jental and Valley.
“With all this potential business which we are just about to unlock, we see ourselves establishing a depot in Tete Province.”
Thando Timbers managing director, Mrs Nunu Dhlakama, said although they are still new in the timber industry, they have realised that there is great potential for them to tap into the export market.
“We greatly appreciate the invitation. We are still in the timber industry, but ever since we got to know about ZimTrade, we have benefitted quite a lot. In 2022, we were voted the SMEs exporter of the year.
Coming to Tete Province has been one of the greatest opportunities for Thando Timbers as there are proper industries here that have expressed willingness to work with us. They need our timber products, especially the transmission poles. In terms of exposure, I have learnt a lot from this outward trade mission,” she said.