RAW minerals and tobacco continued to dominate Zimbabwe's export list in the third quarter of the year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) third-quarter report has established.
The central bank report shows that during the period, gold injected US$502,5 million being the largest export earner constituting 26% of the total exports. The Platinum Group of Minerals (PGM) raked in US $403.8 million.
Industrial diamonds raked in US$136,8 million 7,1% of exports, Ferro-Chromium US$85 million 4,4% percentage exports, Coal US$34 million, Chromium Ores and Concentrates US$20 million and Granite US$8,9 million.
Cash crops like Tobacco and Cotton are US$272,8 million and US$14,9 million respectively.
"During the quarter under review, 48.3% of the country's export products were destined for Asia, followed by Africa with 32.9%, Europe with 5.1%, and the Americas with 1.1%.
"Analysing the exports by country of destination during the same quarter shows that the United Arab Emirates absorbed 26.6% of the country's exports; followed by South Africa, 25.9% and China, 16.2%," the report added.
In total, the country's exports for the third quarter of 2023 amounted to US$1,931.0 million, up 21.1% from US$1,594.2 million registered in the comparable quarter in 2022.
Similarly, the third quarter of 2023 outturn was 4.3%, slightly higher than the US$1,851.3 million realised in the preceding quarter. The increase in the country's export earnings during the third quarter of 2023 was underpinned by the improvements in industrial diamonds and tobacco exports, which rose by 24.4% and 2.4%, respectively.
The data brings to the fore the urgent need for authority to enact value addition and beneficiation in the mining and agricultural sectors.
Market watchers believe that if the nation is to invest in value addition and beneficiation the minerals and cash crops will likely more than triple current earnings while creating thousands of jobs.
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