By Aldridge Dzvene
Zimbabwe’s assumption of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) chairmanship places the country at the centre of a regional economic agenda whose success will depend less on the removal of trade barriers and more on whether member states can turn their combined market of more than 640 million people into a productive industrial base.
The transition, which followed the 25th COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit held in October, presents Zimbabwe with an opportunity to shape the regional conversation around industrialisation, investment and trade. More importantly, it comes at a time when the bloc is confronting a fundamental economic contradiction: despite its considerable population and an estimated combined gross domestic product of about US$1 trillion, trade among COMESA member states remains relatively limited.
In 2024, intra-COMESA exports stood at approximately US$14 billion, against total exports to the rest of the world of about US$202 billion. The figures expose a gap between the region’s potential as an integrated market and its actual capacity to produce and trade with itself. The challenge is not simply that African countries are trading too little with one another. It is that their economies have not sufficiently developed complementary industries, supply chains and production systems capable of sustaining greater regional commerce.
This is where Zimbabwe’s chairmanship assumes particular economic significance. The regional market cannot become an industrial engine merely through declarations supporting free trade. It requires productive capacity, reliable infrastructure, accessible finance, harmonised standards and the ability of businesses to supply goods consistently across borders. Without these foundations, regional integration risks remaining largely a framework for exchanging goods produced elsewhere rather than a mechanism for building African industrial strength.
Zimbabwe’s own export performance illustrates both the progress made and the structural work that remains. Merchandise exports increased to approximately US$9.71 billion in 2025, while value-added exports rose from US$437 million in 2024 to US$571 million in 2025, representing growth of 30.6 percent. This is an encouraging movement towards greater domestic value retention, but the wider composition of export earnings shows that the economy remains heavily dependent on primary commodities.
Mining generated approximately US$7.31 billion in export earnings in 2025, including US$4.38 billion from gold, while tobacco contributed about US$1.53 billion. These figures demonstrate the importance of the country’s mineral and agricultural resources to foreign currency generation. They also reveal the scale of the opportunity to deepen processing, manufacturing and the development of industries that can capture more value before products reach international markets.
The distinction is important. Rising export receipts strengthen the economy’s external position, but they do not automatically indicate that the productive structure has changed. A country can increase its exports while remaining exposed to international commodity prices and external demand. Sustainable transformation requires a gradual shift towards an economy in which more of the value embedded in its natural resources, agricultural output and human skills is retained through domestic processing, manufacturing and associated services.
The COMESA market offers a potential platform for accelerating that transition. Rather than viewing regional integration simply as an opportunity to sell more finished products, Zimbabwe can use it to create the scale needed to make domestic industries more viable. A manufacturer producing for a relatively small national market may struggle to achieve the volumes required to compete with established international suppliers. Access to a wider regional market can improve that equation, provided production costs, quality, standards and logistics are competitive.
The COMESA Business Declaration adopted in Harare during the 19th COMESA Business Forum reflects an understanding of these interconnected challenges. Its priorities include regional value chains, investment and financing, green industrialisation, digital trade, transport connectivity and stronger private-sector participation. Its incorporation into the communiqué of the 25th COMESA Summit gives the business community’s proposals greater political visibility, although the real measure of progress will be whether they translate into practical reforms and investment decisions across member states.
The emphasis on regional value chains is especially relevant. Agro-processing, horticulture, leather, pharmaceuticals and other manufacturing activities offer opportunities for countries to specialise in different stages of production rather than attempting to build every industry independently. Such arrangements can create markets for intermediate goods, support small and medium-sized enterprises and reduce dependence on suppliers outside the continent. However, they require more than political goodwill. Businesses must be able to move inputs and finished products across borders without excessive delays, unpredictable costs or inconsistent regulatory requirements.
The proposed use of digital customs systems, electronic certificates, national single windows and regional payment platforms could help address some of these constraints. Equally important is the availability of financing that recognises the realities of production and cross-border trade. Small businesses may have viable products and potential buyers but lack the working capital required to fulfil large orders. Instruments such as invoice financing, warehouse receipt systems, credit guarantees and supply-chain finance can help bridge that gap, particularly when supported by regional financial institutions.
Zimbabwe’s engagement with China provides another dimension to this export strategy. Bilateral trade reached approximately US$4.4 billion in 2025, with Zimbabwe recording a trade surplus. The expansion of zero-tariff access and the entry of the first commercial shipment of Zimbabwean blueberries into the Chinese market in 2026 demonstrate the possibilities created when market access is connected to specific export opportunities.
The participation of 17 Zimbabwean companies at the ninth China International Import Expo in Shanghai from 5 to 10 November is therefore significant beyond the visibility it offers local businesses. The sectors represented, including horticulture, manufacturing, leather, handicrafts, construction, tourism and e-commerce, point to an effort to widen the country’s export profile. Yet international exhibitions must form part of a sustained export development system. Securing a buyer is only the beginning; retaining that buyer requires consistent quality, traceability, adequate production volumes, reliable delivery and the ability to meet the standards of the destination market.
The same principle applies to the opportunities emerging from the COMESA Business Forum. The signing of a memorandum of understanding between ZimTrade and the Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute, for example, provides a platform for strengthening an industry in which regional cooperation could support skills development, processing and market access. The experience of the Mashava Arts Cluster, whose sculptors have reached buyers in European markets, also demonstrates that export diversification need not be confined to large industrial establishments. Smaller producers can participate in international trade when their products are organised, marketed and connected to dependable buyers.
For Zimbabwe, the opportunity now is to connect these individual initiatives to a coherent national and regional production strategy. The country’s mineral resources, agricultural base, manufacturing ambitions and growing creative industries should not be treated as separate export stories. They are potential components of a wider industrial ecosystem in which local suppliers feed processors, processors supply regional markets and regional demand supports further investment.
The chairmanship also brings responsibility. Zimbabwe cannot independently determine the direction of a 21-member regional bloc, but it can use its convening position to encourage coordination, sustain political commitment and place practical implementation at the centre of the agenda. Progress should be measured through tangible outcomes: reduced border delays, improved regional payment systems, more investment in productive industries, increased trade in manufactured goods and stronger participation by businesses across member states.
Ultimately, the significance of Zimbabwe’s COMESA leadership will not be determined by the number of meetings hosted or declarations adopted. It will be judged by whether the region begins to convert its collective market into productive capacity, competitive industries and jobs. For Zimbabwe, that is the deeper opportunity: to move beyond exporting what the economy extracts and produces in its raw form, towards building an industrial base capable of supplying a much larger African market.
