Zimbabwe's Horticultural Development Council, HDC, says the nation earns $120 million annually from exports of horticultural products including citrus, flowers, tea, avocados, blueberries and macadamia nuts.
Speaking during a horticultural conference held in the nation's capital, Harare, HDC's Vice President Linda Nielsen said the sector in Zimbabwe will "have to grow 10 times" to reach the target of $1 billion in exports by 2030.
"Obviously it calls for rapid expansion in the sector," Nielsen said.
The targeted growth would require $1.2 billion of investment, according to the HDC, an uphill task for a sector struggling with an inconsistent policy and regulatory environment, high borrowing costs, logistics challenges and persistent concerns over land tenure.
Increasing investment in products such as blueberries and macadamia nuts, whose global demand has surged in recent years, is helping traditional products such as citrus, tea and flowers to drive the rebound.
Pete Breinstein, the President of Zimbabwe's Citrus Growers Association addressed the horticulture conference.
Breinsten said Zimbabwe will "see a revival of up to 10,000 hectares (of citrus plantations) by 2030. Most of it was lost to land reform."
Zimbabwe's horticultural exports peaked at $140 million in 1999, before former President Robert Mugabe championed the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.
The land seizures disrupted the nation's agriculture-driven economy, triggering food shortages and a lengthy economic crisis marked by 500 billion percent hyperinflation in 2008.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe's successor, has sought to improve relations with white farmers and is supporting the revival of agriculture, including providing funding.
The European Union, a major market for Zimbabwe's horticultural exports, is also providing technical support and funding through the European Investment Bank.
Stanley Heri, the HDC's President said Zimbabwe "can get there, provided there is an enabling environment and user-friendly financing."
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