Zim-Botswana trade has potential to double � BITC
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday January 20, 2017 14:28
According to the results of the market survey, trade potential between the two countries was estimated at US$333 million (P3.5 billion) in 2014, while actual trade stood at US$128 (P1.4 billion) during the year.
BITC manager market intelligence, Tiroyaone Sirang said a large portion of the current trade however appears to be transit trade in the motor industry rather than products actually manufactured in Botswana.
On the potential export analysis, the survey revealed clothing and household textiles that includes t-shirts and towels, prepared foodstuffs like mixtures of juices, cereals, sugar, confectionary, pasta, canned beef, plastic sacks, bags, pvc tubes, pipes and hoses, salt, toiletries, cosmetics and cleaning products.
“Others include live animals, meat and meat products as there is demand for deboned meat and swine as well as medicaments like veterinary medicines, paper and articles including packaging like toilet paper, sacks, bags of paper,” he said.
Sirang also noted that there is market access for typical select goods, which include cooking oils, sausages and similar products, uncooked pasta, soap in bards, blankets, other doors and windows in their frames.
“For one to export to Zimbabwe, there are bilateral agreements that allow exemption from customs duties as long as goods satisfy minimum 25% local content. The business owner needs to register with BURS to ascertain the 25%,” he said.Sirang said the aim of the survey was to find ways to explore and develop entirely new markets while at the same time enhancing the existing markets access for Botswana exports into Zimbabwe.
Pioneers of Botswana exporters to Zimbabwe include Botash, which exports salt, Chloride Botswana which sells batteries, O3 Beverages with bottled water, and BMC with canned beef.
Among some of the strategies identified by the study to penetrate the Zimbabwean market include the advantage of the Plumtree border post, which is faster and has less traffic compared to Beitbridge border in South Africa. The study also identified Harare and Bulawayo as the two major hubs that should be targeted, as they constitute 50% and 20% of total consumption respectively.
Further, the survey also revealed the top 15 products identified in terms of overlap in trade.
Overlap is the lower figure between Botswana exports and partner imports and represents total capacity for trade.
The products included vehicles for goods and people, nickel mattes, light petroleum oils, commodities not specified according to kind, salt both the table salt, denatured salt and pure sodium chloride, and vaccines for veterinary medicines.