December 12, 2006
Zimbabwe to export beef to Hong Kong
Zimbabwe has signed a beef export deal with Hong Kong in a bid to boost its dwindling foreign currency earnings, according to the "Herald" reports.
Zimbabwe expects to export at least 5,000 tonnes of beef to the Asian commercial hub beginning early next year, according to the state-controlled newspaper.
Beef exports suffered a knock in 2000 when the EU suspended imports after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The EU imports earlier, totalled more than 9,000 tonnes a year.
The country's leading beef company, Cold Storage earned more than US$50 million through beef exports to the EU, said Ngoni Chinogaramombe, the company's CEO. He hopes to get back to the old level with the new deal.
Having been shunned by western nations over charges of rigged elections and human rights abuse, President Robert Mugabe has now been urging firms to look East for alternative markets.
There has been a massive decline in the country's key agricultural sector following the launch of a controversial land reform programme in 2000, aimed at confiscating white-owned land for new black farmers.
The country's export-quality beef herd stood at about 1.6 million cattle in 2000. It is understood to have declined by about 70 percent since then.
The country's inflation rate, which is the highest in the world, along with unemployment at above 80 percent, shrinking GDP, and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel, are clear signs of an economic and political crisis.
Mugabe expects the inflation to slow to between 350 percent and 400 percent by the end of next year, although analysts seem wary of the forecast.