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.

As China opens up to African farms, long road still ahead for ‘green lanes’

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.

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China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders

China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders

Some African countries have recently signed deals allowing the export of agricultural products such as chillies, cashews, sesame seeds and spices to China.

China, Zimbabwe seek stronger ties as Harare prepares for elections

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.