Agriculture is the engine of the economy. It plays a key role, employing 27 percent of the working population and contributing over 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product. It provides many of the raw materials required by the manufacturing sector.Currently, agriculture produces Z$9,2 billion worth of products annually and contributes Z$5,4 billion or 40 percent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. Eighty percent of the population depend directly, or indirectly on agriculture.
Major export commodities like tobacco and horticulture are covered separately in this directory, but there are many other crops like sugar, tea, coffee, cotton, seeds, maize, small grains and oilseeds which are also exported. The country also exports livestock, dairy products, wildlife and poultry meat, as well as exotic livestock meat and products.
Until recently, most agricultural commodities were sold to parastatal marketing boards at controlled prices. In many cases, prices were kept unrealistically low, forcing farmers to switch from controlled commodities to tobacco and horticulture, where prices were determined by market forces. The freeing up of farm produce marketing has opened new opportunities for investment in processing and other downstream industries. A commodity exchange modelled on the lines of overseas commodity exchanges has been set up in Harare to buy and sell produce at market prices.
Farmers have generally welcomed the changes in commodity marketing arrangements.