The Sunday News
Noble Ncube, Business Reporter
SMALL to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been challenged to produce organic products if they want to penetrate the international market on a larger scale as the appetite for the products continues to increase around the world.
Speaking after touring some stands of SMES during the 57th Zimbabwe International Trade Fair last week, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development, Mrs Evelyn Ndlovu, said it was a global trend for manufacturers to produce organic products because of the need to preserve the earth.
“As we take these various SMEs on board we also educate them to produce organic products. If you look at the world all over, tourists or international buyers want organic products. One example I know is of Europeans, they want products with low cholesterol.
“The Government funds us to make sure that we market these SMEs. Our mandate is also to take these SMEs to international markets. We are now working with SMEs that went to Japan Jetro expo last year, especially those that are producing organic products,” she said.
Global demand for organic products is rising, with increasing health consciousness, growing concern for the environment, income growth and the increased convenience of organic food.
Mrs Ndlovu said it was an opportunity for SMEs that are into agro-processing and production to expand and grow their businesses.
The SMEs can provide a wide variety of products, with the key performers being beef, fruit, vegetables and poultry.
“The reason why we come annually to exhibit at the ZITF is because we want to attract more markets. We are promoting access to both international and local markets.
“To make our products competent foreign products we check the quality of produced goods, comparing them with international standards. We also check packaging, quantity and pricing.
“In that regard we are also answering the value addition in line with Zim Asset,” she said.
Buy Zimbabwe chief economist Mr Kipson Gundani acknowledged the need to produce organic products.
He said as it was equally important to be organic, it was also imperative to produce goods that can sell in international markets.
“We are working with local SMEs to increase productivity of local products. We have since increased our minimum local content requirement in everything produced in the country. For local SMEs we have said at least 30 percent of the primary products should be locally manufactured.
“As you can see that the public it still dependant on foreign products, we are trying to have them gain confidence in our local goods. Extra effort is needed to make products be accepted by locals,” said Mr Gundani.
He said for local manufacturers to be able to penetrate foreign markets in depth, their products should first be accepted by local consumers.
He said it was an achievable initiative which needed support from all economic sectors.
This year’s edition of the ZITF brought together many SMEs than ever before as SMEs from Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia exhibited their products.
