ESWATINI AIMS TO OPTIMISE EXISTING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

MBABANE – In order to optimise its international markets, the Kingdom of Eswatini seeks to leverage its embassy network for trade and investment promotion.

This is part of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade’s strategies for this year going forward. These strategy outlined by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo, was informed by the submissions made by emaSwati during Sibaya last year.

According to the minister, they seek to approach execution of those submissions as follows:
1)     Broad interventions aimed at addressing the issues.
2)     Strategies that operationalise those interventions.
3) Where appropriate, budget estimates, will be provided.

In an interview with the Times Business desk, the minister said their focus would not be focused much an opening new markets, instead it would be optimising the already existing ones. Khumalo said it was noted that the country’s level of trade with its many trading partners was still very low, hence it required to be enhanced and utilised to the fullest. He noted that Eswatini had many trading agreements with regional and abroad partners.

The country has trade agreements with the likes of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Southern African Customs Union (SACU), African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), European Union (EU),  The minister added that they also wanted to strengthen the agro-value chain. He said in order to do that, their strategy was to support formation of multi-purpose cooperatives to produce for export. He said they also wanted to increase utilisation of the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme.

Strategy

Khumalo said the ministry was also developing a strategy to increase export promotion activities to available markets for agricultural products.
It is worth noting that the recent economic developments report by the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) for October – November 2023, revealed that cumulative exports for 2023 (January-October) amounted to E30.324 billion, a notable increase when compared to 2022 cumulative exports of E26.294 billion.

Meanwhile, as at October 2023, imports amounted to E28.479 billion, also recording an increase from cumulative imports of E26.380 billion recorded in 2022. The direction of trade has not shifted from South Africa being the dominant trading partner, absorbing 68.5 per cent of exports in October, followed by Kenya at 4.9 per cent, Nigeria at 4.7 per cent and lastly Zimbabwe at 2.6 per cent.

Exports

Main exports to South Africa included soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood and textile products, while to the rest of Africa, Eswatini mostly exported soft drink concentrate and sugar. Details in October 2023 export data illustrates an increase of ‘soft drink concentrate’ exports of 6.5 per cent month-on-month to E1.759 billion, accounting for 49.7 per cent of total exports in the month. On a year-on-year basis, this was 27.3 per cent higher compared to October 2022.

‘Sugar and sugar products’ on the other hand fell by 32.8 per cent month-on-month to E726.2 million, while on a year-over-year comparison, sugar exports were 20.6 per cent higher. Exports of ‘textile and textile apparel’ displayed a sizable month-on-month increase of 29.2 per cent to E355.0 million; however, on a year-on-year basis this was 18.1 per cent lower. ‘Wood and articles of wood’ also recorded a fall of 8.0 per cent in October 2023, to E224.7 million and 6.5 per cent higher when compared with the same month in 2022.

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