Zimbabwe - Overseas Development Institute

t r a s t , for example, to manufacturers i n the c l o t h i n g , t e x t i l e ,
tobacco, f u r n i t u r e and leather i n d u s t r i e s .
Figure 18. Index of Food Production, 1967-82,Constant(1980)Prices,
GNI Prices: Heat Products, Fruit and Vegetable Processing
and Grain and Animal Feeds.
Source: Censusof Production 1983/84 and1976/r7,CS0, Harare and
Monthly Digest of Statistics, December 1986.
Second, as most raw material inputs come from the a g r i c u ­
l t u r a l sector and output tends to vary s u b s t a n t i a l l y from year to
year because of d i f f e r e n c e s i n r a i n f a l l , there was l i t t l e
i n c e n t i v e to introduce plant of a capacity s u f f i c i e n t to cater
for a s u b s t a n t i a l export market, e s p e c i a l l y when i n t e r n a t i o n a l
p r i c e s f o r such products have experienced long term progressive
d e c l i n e s . This f a c t o r i s confirmed by the recent wide v a r i a t i o n s
i n the value added of three sub-groups of food manufacturing over
the past 15 years: meat products, canning and preserving of f r u i t
and vegetables and g r a i n and animal f o o d s t u f f s , shown i n Figure
18. Third, while the sector was only minimally (and decreasingly)
dependent upon access to f o r e i g n exchange for raw material
inputs, there was a major and i n c r e a s i n g f o r e i g n exchange
c o n s t r a i n t i n expanding the c a p i t a l base of the sub-sector; given
t h i s shortage, the f i r s t p r i o r i t y went to p r o v i d i n g c a p i t a l to
meet the domestic demand for f o o d s t u f f s rather than to add