Foreign Exhibitors Lift Zimbabwe Agricultural Show To 18%
The gates at Exhibition Park in Harare swung open on Monday morning to a busy hum of voices and the smell of freshly turned soil, as the 116th Zimbabwe Agricultural Show began with a clear signal: the world is taking a keener interest in Zimbabwean agriculture.
International exhibitors now account for 18 percent of participants at the country’s flagship agricultural showcase, up from 11 percent last year, according to the organisers. The week-long show, which runs until Saturday, is being held under the theme, “Powering Growth: Where Agriculture, Technology and Commerce Converge.”
About 640 exhibitors have taken up space this year, a 4.4 percent rise from the 630 companies recorded in 2025. All exhibition halls are fully subscribed, underscoring the appetite among local and foreign firms to connect with farmers, agri-businesses, and policymakers.
Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is expected to officially open this year’s edition, highlighting its growing diplomatic and regional profile in Southern Africa.
Foreign Participation Signals Rising Confidence
Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) Chief Executive Officer Rufaro Alfred Gunundu said the upswing in numbers reflects renewed confidence in the country’s agricultural sector and its role in broader economic recovery.
“ZASC 2026 has registered strong growth in the number of exhibitors, rising from 630 last year to 640 this year,” said Gunundu. “New exhibitors stand at 86, representing a significant 13.4 percent of all exhibitors. This is a clear indication that there is growing interest in the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show.”
For smallholder farmers, that confidence is not an abstract figure. It translates into new seed varieties on display, smarter irrigation kits, and the chance to hear directly from regional suppliers about pricing, after-sales service, and credit options. For government, it offers a public barometer of how policy signals and investment climate are being read beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
Gunundu said the surge in foreign exhibitors was especially striking.
“Foreign exhibitors have gone up from 11 percent last year to 18 percent this year, which is very encouraging,” he said. “This growth in foreign participation brings diversity to the show and creates opportunities for knowledge sharing, business linkages and exposure to international products and innovations.”
FFA Explainer:
The Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, formerly known as the Harare Agricultural Show, is the country’s largest annual agricultural and commercial exhibition. It brings together farmers, agribusiness companies, government departments, development agencies, and the general public to showcase products, services, technologies, and policy priorities linked to agriculture and rural development.
What International Exhibitors Offer To Farmers
Behind the percentage increase is a changing mix of who comes to Harare and why. International participation at such shows often includes input manufacturers, machinery suppliers, seed companies, livestock specialists, and digital agriculture firms. Their presence tends to shape what tools end up in Zimbabwean fields in the next few seasons.
The show’s theme — where agriculture, technology, and commerce converge — speaks directly to this shift. From climate-resilient seed and conservation tillage equipment to mobile-based insurance and digital extension platforms, the global trend is towards tighter links between the field, the factory, and the finance desk. Zimbabwe’s planners link this to the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which places agriculture at the centre of inclusive economic growth.
For a maize farmer travelling from Gokwe or Mutoko, the foreign booths are less about geopolitics and more about practical questions: Can this pump work on my shallow well? Will this solar kit handle our cloudy days? How does this new variety perform under late planting? The presence of international exhibitors creates a space where those questions can be asked and answered directly.
Gunundu said this global presence offers more than just equipment catalogues.
“The heightened global presence will give local delegates and visitors exposure to international markets, modern farming techniques, and commercial linkages,” he noted.
Those markets matter for Zimbabwe’s ambitions under the African Continental Free Trade Area and AU Agenda 2063, which both emphasise value-added trade within the continent. A seed company from the region, impressed by what it sees at the show, could decide to partner with a local distributor. A livestock genetics firm might sign a memorandum of understanding with a farmer organisation. Each quiet meeting in a show tent has the potential to shape value chains for years.
Zimbabwe’s Own Farmers Step Onto The Global Stage
While foreign participation is rising, the show remains deeply anchored in Zimbabwe’s own farm story. From the communal lands of Nkayi and Zaka to the irrigation schemes of Chiredzi and the citrus orchards of Mazowe, farmers bring their best produce, animals, and ideas to Harare to be judged, showcased, and debated.
In recent years, programmes aligned to NDS1 have encouraged farmers to move beyond raw commodity production toward value addition. At Exhibition Park, this is visible in stands that display peanut butter, dried vegetables, sorghum snacks, and artisanal cheeses produced by cooperatives and youth groups. Some of these home-grown enterprises use the show to meet export agents, microfinance institutions, and NGOs supporting agro-processing.
The presence of a visiting head of state, such as Namibia’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, sends a clear message that Zimbabwe’s agricultural transformation is being watched — and in some cases, courted — by regional partners. For smallholders, it reinforces that their produce and skills are part of a wider African growth story, not a side note.
One Harare-based agronomist who has attended the show for several years said the numbers tell only part of the story.
“You can feel the difference walking through the halls,” he said. “The conversations are more technical, more focused on solving real production problems and linking farmers to buyers. That’s where foreign participation makes a difference — it brings in new questions and new answers.”
Ostriches, Families, And The Public Face Of Agriculture
Beyond boardrooms and business cards, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show is also one of the country’s biggest family outings. This year, organisers have added a new attraction that has already drawn curious crowds: live ostriches, showcased for the first time.
“An exciting development is that we are showcasing ostriches for the first time in history,” Gunundu said. “We invite people from all walks of life to come and join us. There is everything for everyone.”
For children queuing to see the towering birds, it is pure wonder. For livestock producers, it is also a quiet nudge to think more broadly about diversification in a changing climate. Across Southern Africa, some farmers are exploring alternative livestock species and value chains that can handle heat stress and shifting grazing conditions.
Zimbabwe already has pockets of interest in goats, indigenous chickens, and fish farming. The decision to spotlight ostriches at a national event signals that the conversation about what counts as “mainstream” livestock is expanding. That matters for risk management in an era of erratic rainfall and drought, issues that sit at the centre of both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and AU Agenda 2063’s agriculture priorities.
Harare’s Show, Mutoko’s Field: Why It Matters For Smallholders
For a tomato grower from Mutoko or a groundnut farmer from Guruve, the question is always the same: how does a glitzy exhibition in Harare translate into more stable incomes back home?
The answer lies in the connections forged in the exhibition halls and livestock arenas. Rural youth groups can meet coding collectives offering mobile apps that track rainfall or market prices. Women’s cooperatives producing jam or dried vegetables can link up with packaging suppliers or logistics firms that can move their goods beyond local growth points. Extension officers can compare notes with regional counterparts on low-cost conservation agriculture tools.
In Mashonaland East, for example, a group of young farmers from Murehwa has been experimenting with small-scale solar-powered irrigation for horticulture after encountering the technology at a previous edition of the show. They combined their savings, approached a financier they had first met in an exhibition hall, and are now supplying vegetables to Harare retailers almost year-round.
Their story illustrates how an event often seen as urban and elite can, when matched with practical follow-up, feed directly into village-level transformation. It also shows why international exhibitors — many of whom bring financing models, warranties, and training packages — matter for farmers who are often locked out of high-quality inputs by price and distance.
Small-scale irrigation success stories from across Zimbabwe show similar patterns: exposure to technology at a fair or field day, followed by a period of saving or group organising, then a leap into higher-value production. The Harare show gives those stories a national stage.
Policy, Trade, And The Bigger Picture
The Zimbabwe Agricultural Show does not operate in a vacuum. It sits amid debates on currency stability, input subsidies, contract farming, land tenure security, and export incentives — all issues that shape whether the deals discussed in Harare translate into real investments on the ground.
For policymakers, the rise in foreign participation can be read as an informal feedback loop. If more international firms choose to spend money, time, and energy at Exhibition Park, it suggests they see commercial opportunity in Zimbabwe’s fields and processing plants. That aligns with official ambitions to make agriculture a key driver of growth and export earnings under NDS1.
At the same time, the numbers remind government and development partners that connectivity is uneven. Farmers from remote districts still struggle with transport costs to attend the show, and language or technical jargon can create barriers inside the halls.
FFA Explainer:
International exhibitors often come with their own priorities: brand exposure, market entry, or partnerships. For farmers to benefit, organisers and government agencies need to arrange translations, tailored demonstrations, and follow-up support through local extension services. Without this bridge, the impact tends to stay within city limits.
Some provinces have responded by organising delegations of lead farmers, youth agripreneurs, and women’s groups to attend the show as a learning tour. After Harare, these delegates run feedback sessions and mini field days back home, sharing what they saw — from new planting techniques to packaging designs. Done well, this approach widens the impact zone of the national exhibition.
Youth agripreneurs and women’s farming collectives are especially well-placed to take advantage of the networking on offer. Many are more comfortable with digital tools, making it easier for them to maintain relationships with suppliers, financiers, and buyers long after the show ends.
From Exhibition Park To Agenda 2063
The African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN SDGs both call for an Africa that feeds itself, trades more with itself, and builds climate-smart food systems that create jobs for women and young people. The scenes at Exhibition Park this week — contracts negotiated between local and foreign firms, students crowding around drone displays, children staring up at ostriches — are the small, tangible pieces of that long-term vision.
As the 116th edition of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show unfolds, the headlines will focus on the numbers: 640 exhibitors, 18 percent foreign participation, halls fully booked. Behind those figures are thousands of conversations between farmers, traders, engineers, and policy officials trying to answer a simple, urgent question: how do we grow more, earn more, and waste less under tougher climate and economic conditions?
The real measure of success will not be taken at the closing ceremony on Saturday, but in the months to come — when a farmer in Tsholotsho tries out a drought-tolerant variety discovered in Harare, or a co-operative in Chiredzi lands a new buyer first met at an exhibition stand. Those quiet shifts, multiplied across districts and seasons, are how a week-long show can help power long-term growth.
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