Human Flower Project
Zimbabwe Push
The central bank and national board on exports promise infusions of money for Zimbabwe’s flower industry.
Zimbabwe flower farm
Photo: BBC
To draw foreign currency into the country and exploit the nation’s floriculture advantages, both natural and human, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank and Export Processing Zones Authority are setting aside $750 billion to improve the flower industry there.
“Skilled and former operators would be given a special dispensation and guarantees of uninterrupted productive tenure of five to 10 years.” In recent years, many ethnic-European farmers have been dispossessed in Zimbabwe’s version of land reform, but the new program seems to guarantee governmental protections for big agriculture, underwriting greenhouses, better irrigation, rose propagation, refrigeration, and marketing for experienced growers. Even so, the longterm strategy seems to be to educate native Zimbabwe farmers in floriculture. The chief of the reserve bank in May “called on former operators of horticultural estates to work closely with new farmers to expedite the skills transfer process.”
Zimbabwe’s flower industry has shrunk in recent years, declining from” 24,000 tonnes of flowers worth US$86 million” in 2002 to less than 20,000 tonnes this year. “The central bank said the entire horticultural industry is targeted to contribute US$166 million in foreign exchange this year, representing 37 percent of agricultural export earnings.”
Along with changes on the production side, Zimbabwe’s flower exports are reaching new markets. In the past, its flowers all sold through the Holland auctions, but this year Zimbabwe began exporting blooms to the Far East, and “indications are that Zimbabwe could clinch a lucrative deal to supply the bulk of horticultural products to Dubai auction floors scheduled to be opened early next year.”
The Chronicle writes that Zimbabwe crops have “an edge” over produce in other parts of the world since Zimbabwe’s vegetables and flowers “are not genetically modified.”