HARARE — Zimbabwe has exported its first-ever shipment of blueberries to China, following a market access agreement signed between the two countries in September 2025.
Industry body the Horticultural Development Council, marking the milestone, said work now shifts to “scaling production and testing the best supply routes to this huge new market.”
The agreement was signed in Beijing during a visit by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, when the two countries concluded a phytosanitary protocol permitting Zimbabwean blueberry exports, following talks that began in April 2024.
The deal builds on a similar protocol reached for avocados in 2024, and coincided with a Chinese policy granting zero-tariff treatment on all tariff lines for the 53 African countries with which Beijing maintains diplomatic relations – meaning Zimbabwean blueberries enter the Chinese market duty-free.
China’s blueberry imports have grown from roughly 665 tonnes in 2005 to nearly 39,000 tonnes in 2024, driven mainly by Peru and Chile, giving Zimbabwean growers access to one of the world’s fastest-expanding fruit markets.
Zimbabwe’s blueberry industry has grown rapidly since the country began small-scale cultivation in 2008 and made its first exports in 2017. Production reached 8,000 tonnes in 2024 and is projected to climb to 12,000 tonnes this year, with existing exports going mainly to the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
The sector falls under the government’s Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan, which targets a $2 billion horticulture industry.
Horticultural Development Council chief executive Linda Nielsen spoke last week at the Zim-China Investment Symposium, stating: “China has opened the door. We must now make sure we have enough product to walk through it.”
The council has said the pace of exports to China will depend on compliance with the protocol’s sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, as well as the associated compliance costs.
Growers have also flagged high interest rates and limited access to long-term financing as constraints on expanding blueberry hectarage, currently earmarked to grow from 600 to 1,500 hectares with support from a proposed $50 million facility from the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe.
