Assuming all of the roughly 16 000 smallholder farmers currently growing tobacco were to produce an average of 400kg of paprika, for example, this would result in a total yield of just 6 400 tons, equal to less than half of Zimbabwe’s record crop. Although it is not unreasonable to expect this could lead to lower international prices, smallholder farmers appear well positioned to cope. To the extent this provides a window of opportunity for Zimbabwe’s buyers to focus on lower-value smallholder paprika, there could be good potential for a gradual shift away from tobacco. Whether or not this potential can be realised, however, still depends on the development of crop extension services and input supply arrangements. As with all other enterprises, more comprehensive modelling is needed to assess the conditions under which such an investment would make financial and economic sense. Marigold flowers are a relatively new niche product in Zimbabwe and are grown almost exclusively by LSC farmers for their value as a colour extract. Marigold is a much lower-value commodity than either coffee or paprika,vertical plant rack but grows well on most soil types and is forgiving to management input.
As a bulky and relatively low-value commodity the returns to marigold are highly sensitive to transportation costs and most LSC farmers dry the crop in a cement-lined silage pit before delivery to Harare for processing. Dry flowers are converted to a compact pellet form for export or for domestic use either as an industrial food colour or ingredient in stock feed. Research is ongoing in Zimbabwe to determine an optimal pest control strategy and fertiliser recommendations for LSC marigold. Current production is around 700mt of dry flowers annually. Horticulture is Zimbabwe’s second most valuable agricultural export sector after tobacco and earned over USD 124.9 million in gross foreign income in the 1999/00 season, equal to approximately 1.5% of total GDP and 22% of the revenue generated by tobacco.An overview of sector performance by export season is given in Table 33 and shows that horticulture has grown rapidly in the past ten years with total value now five times greater than in 1990. But unstable political and macroeconomic conditions have slowed these growth rates and it is projected that total exports in the 2000/01 season could decline by 10% or more. Roses require a large expenditure on imported inputs, especially during establishment, for irrigation equipment, planting materials and greenhouse construction, and the total export values listed below would be considerably less if measured in net terms.
More than 80% of Zimbabwe’s horticultural exports are grown on LSC tobacco farms and were first developed using tobacco revenue. For most farmers, the main objective behind the introduction of roses and other horticultural exports was to lessen their dependence on tobacco. Not only can horticultural crops be extremely profitable, but like tobacco, they also earn foreign exchange and so have the potential to play a similar anchor role in a mixed farm system. Furthermore, although horticultural crops tend to be expensive because of high costs for pest and disease control, export vegetables and roses both provide a steady cash flow in their own right with weekly and even daily sales throughout the export season. From the social point of view, a further advantage of horticulture is that these crops are extremely labour intensive and create more jobs on a per hectare basis than any other farm enterprise including tobacco. These characteristics all make horticulture a very attractive sector, both for farmers and for Zimbabwe as a whole in terms of more diverse export earnings, employment creation and potential for growth linkages.Despite these advantages, the production and marketing of horticultural crops is a highly specialised business that cannot be entered into lightly. At the field level, success demands unparalleled attention to quality control and strict adherence to European standards governing the use of pesticides, fertilisers and other inputs.
It is not unusual for more than 30% of a vegetable crop to be rejected because of quality and this risk has discouraged many LSC farmers from continuing with production. Marketing, therefore, is one of the biggest obstacles to success. Although cut flowers can still be sold independently on the Dutch auction, most other produce must be sold as part of a forward contract negotiated by a central agent or export consortium with the capacity to supply the specific volumes and varieties of produce European buyers demand. 145. High freight costs and the availability of direct flights to Europe further add to the challenge of success with horticulture and are currently among the most pressing constraints facing Zimbabwe’s export sector. Over the past 12 months, direct flights from Harare to the UK, Europe and Australia have been reduced from 32 to 14 per week, resulting in a shortfall of approximately 150 tons of cargo space per week with a potential value USD 17 million over the 25-week peak export season.As a result, many flower exporters have been forced to drive their produce by road to Johannesburg nearly 1 200 kilometres away simply to find cargo space. Zimbabwe also has some of the highest costs for aviation fuel in the region leading to high air freight prices which now account for as much as 40% of total production costs for both vegetables and roses.For these and other reasons, more than 95% of vegetable exports and 100% of cut flowers are grown on individual LSC and large corporate farms, mainly within 200km of the International Airport in Harare. Smallholder farmers are only marginally involved in the export sector with fewer than 3 000 vegetable growers linked to established agents. This is in sharp contrast with the experience in Kenya where there are perhaps 60 000 to 75 000 smallholders involved in export-oriented vegetables, including production for canners and freezers. Despite more stringent marketing standards that apply today than when Kenyan horticulture first developed, there is still considerable scope for increased participation of Zimbabwean smallholders on an out grower basis in some of the high potential farm areas near Harare. Three indicative export vegetables are considered for this analysis including mangetout , baby carrots and baby corn. Other important export crops for LSC farmers include sugar snaps, fine beans,growing strawberries vertical system cherry tomatoes, courgettes and asparagus. Each vegetable crop is typically grown over an 8 to 9 week period with most LSC farmers producing three crops in rotation each season. Although some growers have tried to form local export associations with neighbouring producers, most vegetable crops are farmed on an out grower basis for a local contractor who collects, washes, grades and packs the produce as a shelf-ready product for delivery to a UK or other European supermarket chain. Individual farmers simply cannot guarantee the variety and continuity of supply needed to negotiate export contracts with supermarket buyers and this system is a vital link to the international market. To ensure a steady supply of good quality produce, most export agents also grow vegetable crops themselves, especially during the rainy season when many LSC farmers switch away from commodities that are difficult to grow.
Mangetout and baby carrots, for example, are almost impossible to produce during the heavy rains, but baby corn is more forgiving and better suited to production throughout the year. In some cases, this means that export agents have even found it necessary to grow mangetout and other crops in plastic houses just to meet the conditions of regular supply demanded by European buyers. This can be justified for a few months each year, but is only feasible for a large supplier with effective economies of scale.Unlike roses, one important advantage of export vegetables is that these crops do not require a major investment in green houses and other specialised equipment by LSC farmers. Although most crops do best with drip line irrigation, it is perfectly acceptable to use existing overhead spray systems already available on most farms. For export agents, on the other hand, total investment costs can be very high and include the establishment of rural depots, grading and packing sheds, heat extraction units and cold rooms. Generators as well as insulated and refrigerated trucks are also required to ensure the cool chain to Europe is never broken.Large-scale commercial farmers. Per hectare results for each of the LSC vegetable crops covered here are summarised in Table 34. These calculations are based on delivery to a nearby depot where an agent collects the produce for final grading and export presentation. Importantly, LSC farmers are only paid for produce actually exported and yield assumptions are estimated on this basis. Unsurprisingly, this system has led to suspicions by LSC farmers that they are not always paid for all of the produce actually shipped abroad. Certainly, the grading system is not entirely transparent and this problem has caused some farmers to switch away from export vegetables in favour of other crops with more certain terms of payment. Because vegetable crops are all grown to a uniform standard, only one management level for each product is considered.Taken together, the results below are encouraging and show that, under the right conditions, export vegetables can be an important source of steady income for LSC farmers. Although per hectare profits are perhaps somewhat low compared with other enterprises on a single crop basis, export vegetables are normally triple cropped throughout the year and so easily rival flue-cured tobacco and other high-value enterprises in terms of total annual income. Assuming the three crops covered here were grown in rotation, for example, total annual income would be ZWD 102 503 per hectare, which is almost identical to the estimated profits for medium-input dryland flue-cured tobacco. Unlike tobacco, however, one the most important advantages of export vegetables is that these crops provide a steady cash flow in their own right. Not only are export vegetables planted in three to four cycles throughout the year, but most producers also aim to stagger their plantings on a weekly basis to produce a steady harvest throughout the season. This helps minimise the need for large cash expenditure at any one time and also provides a more regular income than almost any other farm enterprise. In terms of employment creation, the data show that an important advantage for Zimbabwe is that export vegetables are all very labour intensive and, on a per hectare basis, easily create more jobs than tobacco. Again assuming the three crops listed above were grown in rotation, a total of 760 days labour would be required per hectare, which is considerably more than for any other enterprise except roses. Although the precise situation will vary from farm to farm, casual workers normally fill more than 50% of the total labour requirement and vegetable exports can be an important source of employment and supplemental income for local residents. It should be stressed, however, that vegetable crops and other horticultural products could never substitute entirely for tobacco, which is grown on a much larger scale. Furthermore, crops with a large labour requirement are not always attractive from the farmer’s perspective because of potential management problems and incremental costs of housing and other benefits for permanent staff.Smallholder farmers. Vegetable crops have long been an important part of most smallholder farm systems and are grown both for household consumption and for sale in local markets. Crops including tomatoes, cabbage, onion, kale and okra all enjoy good demand in rural and urban markets and are an important part of many Zimbabwean diets.Domestic production, however, is entirely different from growing vegetables for the export market and there are currently fewer than 1 700 smallholder farmers within 100km of Harare producing baby corn, mangetout, butternut squash and sweet corn on an out grower basis for one leading export company. These farmers include established SSC producers also growing tobacco; irrigation scheme participants; and individual communal farmers with limited access to other sources of cash income. Depending on the time of year, these farmers produce from 50% to 90% of all baby corn and up to 5% of the mangetout shipped by the export company. Success with smallholder export horticulture depends heavily on technology transfer and the exporter provides extension agents to give advice and ensure that each crop is being grown to the required standards. A network of rural depots has been established to collect the produce and the out grower company itself does crop spraying with the cost deducted from each farmer’s final payment.