Staff Writer
From January to September 2024, trade between Zimbabwe and China has soared to $3 billion, marking a remarkable 25.6% increase compared to the previous year.
This growth reflects the strengthening economic ties between the two nations, with Zimbabwe exporting $2.1 billion and importing $951 million, resulting in a significant trade surplus of $1 billion.
Notably, tobacco exports to China rose by 38.3%, reaching $790 million, which accounts for 40.6% of Zimbabwe’s total exports to the country.
According to Trading Economics, in August 2024 alone, China exported $141 million to Zimbabwe while importing $186 million. From August 2023 to August 2024, Chinese exports to Zimbabwe increased by $6.61 million (4.91%), rising from $135 million to $141 million.
In August 2024, China’s top exports to Zimbabwe included stone processing machines ($6.37 million), delivery trucks ($5.44 million), buses ($3.67 million), iron structures ($3.47 million), and cyanides ($3.27 million).
Conversely, Zimbabwe’s top imports from China that month comprised ferroalloys ($16.3 million), chromium ore ($13.1 million), other minerals ($9.95 million), precious metal ore ($3.98 million), and processed tobacco ($3.53 million).
For context, in 2017, Zimbabwe exported only $625 million to China, with raw tobacco ($301 million), ferroalloys ($229 million), and chromium ore ($25.9 million) as the main products. Over the past five years, Zimbabwe’s exports to China have seen significant annual growth.
Additionally, several key projects financed by Chinese government concessional loans are enhancing Zimbabwe’s development. These projects include the Hwange Power Station Expansion, the Kariba South Power Station Expansion, and upgrades to the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and Victoria Falls Airport.
China and Zimbabwe share a long-standing friendship that dates back to Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle in the 1960s and 1970s.
The two nations established diplomatic relations on April 18, 1980, coinciding with Zimbabwe’s independence, and will celebrate 45 years of partnership next year.
Under the strategic guidance of Presidents Xi Jinping and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation continues to strengthen. In recent years, China has consistently been Zimbabwe’s largest source of foreign investment and a major trading partner.
To help address Zimbabwe’s food shortages caused by drought and Cyclone Idai, China has constructed over 1,000 boreholes across the country, providing access to clean drinking water for more than one million people.
Additionally, China has delivered over 10 shipments of food assistance to Zimbabwe, which include 2,000 tons of rice and wheat delivered in June 2023 and the last delivery of food from the Asian country having been received in Harare on 22 August 2024.
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