P r o g r e s s t h r o u g h i n n o v a t i o n

GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT

INTRODUCTION

ZITF 2014 ran from 22-26 April under the theme

“New Ideas to New Heights: Progress Through

Innovation”.

3 days were open to businesses only and 2 were

open to the public. The show was open from 0900

hours to 1700 hours daily.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Exhibitors

The summary and comparisons are shown below:

Table 1.1 Exhibitor Statistics

Exhibitor numbers increased particularly local indirect exhibitors re�ecting an increase in

group participation in order to contain participation costs. Some exhibitors took slightly

smaller stands because of liquidity challenges.

60% of loyal exhibitors returned while �rst-time exhibitors accounted for 40%. 57% of

exhibitors were from Harare and 35% were Bulawayo-based companies. Other cities around

the country represented 8%.

18 nations were represented up from last year’s 16. Total square meterage occupied by foreign

nations was at 8.5% of total sales compared to 5% last year.

2014 2013 2012 2011% of PriorEdition

% of PriorEdition

% of PriorEdition

Zimbabwe Direct 369 92 401 98.3 408 91.7 445

Zimbabwe/Indirect 193 145 133 94.3 141 65.6 215

Sub Total 562 105 534 97.3 549 83.2 660

Foreign Direct 27 93.1 29 70.7 41 141.4 29

Foreign/Indirect 65 47.4 137 83 165 112.2 147

Sub Total 92 55.4 166 80.6 206 117 186

Grand Total 654 93.4 700 92.7 755 90.3 834

1

SPACE OCCUPIED

2014 2013 2012 2011

Net Area Available for Sale (m2)

58,984 51,697 51,902 55,952

Area Occupied (m2) 55,087 48,576 48,697 51,362

% of Space Occupied

93.39 93.96 93.82 91.80

EXHIBITOR PROFILE

2

Net area available for sale was higher than in recent years as some leaseholders that were

previously not included in the �gures came on stream and areas previously not o�ered for sale

were available for ZITF 2014. Percentage space occupation was less than last year with the show

closing at 93.39%. Hall 2 was recon�gured into a conference facility and the few gaps

that remained were from last-minute cancellations and no-shows.

LOCAL EXHIBITORS

ZITF is a multi-sectoral exhibition open to all players in our economy.

The ZITF 2014 Marketing strategy followed through on last year’s

focus areas, speci�cally:

Machinery and expertise for infrastructure development

(energy, road, rail, water and sanitation)

Manufacturing ideas, processes and equipment for

value addition

Automation and supplies for agro-processing

Knowledge and services relevant to

education and tourism

Equipment and innovation to

advance ICT development

The summary and comparisons are shown below:

Table 1.2 Space Occupied Statistics

All sectors were represented in the exhibition and focus on the above sectors was apparent.

Participants were grouped according to the following sectors and/or product groups:

Hall 1 Agriculture, automotive, consumer goods and electrics, light/heavy engineering, mining,

Ultim8 Home (home improvements, furniture, interior decor)

Hall 2 Health-related exhibits, insurance, medical aid, pharmaceuticals and government

Hall 3 A’sambeni (leisure, travel and recreation), Scholastica (education careers and training),

cosmetics, toiletries

Hall 4 PakPrint (plastics, packaging, printing, stationery), business services, consumer goods,

chemicals, non-manufacturing, clothing/textiles, leather ware/ footwear and IT/hi-tech.

Hall 5 International (assorted)

External sites Agriculture, automotive, light/heavy industry, leisure and mining.

The service sector dominated the exhibition, with a very high component of government and

quasi-government organisations. Participation by the manufacturing sector improved and

accounted for 18.4% of total direct exhibitors up from 14% last year.

FOREIGN EXHIBITORS

18 nations participated, up from 16. National stands came from Botswana, Brazil, The People’s

Republic of China, The Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malawi,

Mozambique, Namibia, Poland, South Africa, United States of America and Zambia. India and Italy

were represented by individual companies.

The Republic of the Congo made a maiden appearance at ZITF while the United States of America

returned after a long absence.

The largest foreign exhibitors this year were The People’s Republic of China (Tianjin Province) and

South Africa (Department of Trade and Industry). The People’s Republic of China occupied over 1,000

square metres from 600 last year, while South Africa increased their space from 700 square metres to

800 this year.

3

FOREIGN DIRECT EXHIBITORS

4

Exhibitor Country Based in represented

American Embassy USA Zimbabwe

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre Botswana Botswana

Bagshaw Footwear South Africa South Africa

CFM-Mozambique Ports & Railways Mozambique Mozambique/ZW

Chamber of Commerce & Supplies Congo (Brazzaville) Congo Brazzaville Congo Brazzaville

Commercial Travellers (Poland) Poland Poland

COSV (Italy) Italy Zimbabwe

Department of Trade and Industry South Africa South Africa

Eduloan South Africa South Africa

Embassy of Brazil Brazil Zimbabwe

Embassy of Egypt Egypt Zimbabwe

Embassy of Indonesia Indonesia Zimbabwe

Embassy of Kenya Kenya Zimbabwe

Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ethiopia Zimbabwe

Embassy of the Republic of Poland Poland South Africa

Embassy of Zambia Zambia Zimbabwe

Hose Manufacturers South Africa South Africa

Ingoby Investments (Pvt.) Ltd. t/a Africa Palm Oil Products South Africa South Africa

Iran Cultural Centre Iran Zimbabwe

Malawi Investment and Trade Centre Malawi Malawi

Namibia Ports Authority Namibia Namibia

Quality Engineers (India) India India

Set-a-solution South Africa South Africa

Tianjin Foreign Economic & Trade Promotion Association China China

Zenith M Panel (China) China China

Zhejiang Medicines and Health Products Import & China China

Export Co., Ltd.

PRODUCT MIX

The product mix was diverse, including organisations from the ICT, careers and training, manufacturing, agricultural equipment, engineering and energy sectors and services industry.

VISITORS PROFILE

Over 79,000 people were admitted through the exhibition centre gates. Of these, 6% were exhibition visitors made up of over 4,800 business visitors and over 74,000 non-business visitors. The majority of these visitors to the exhibition were local. The business visitors came from the following countries among others: Botswana, The People’s Republic of China, The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe.

CONCURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Scholastica, the education, careers and training exhibition that runs concurrently with ZITF, occupied just over 50% of Hall 3. In addition to the expo, workshops and presentations were held on the Hall 1 Mezzanine �oor with topics centred around career choice, career redirection andentrepreneurship.

Ultim8 Home, the home improvement expo, was in Hall 1, while A’sambeni Africa Business Tourism Expo and PakPrint were in Halls 3 and 4 respectively The refocused MICE expo attracted 20 regional Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events buyers (including media) whose mandate was to source new markets, link local players with international clients as well as to promote the country as a prime destination for meetings and conventions.

Some of these buyers have clients in South Africa as well as the United Kingdom, Australia and across Europe that we hope to interest in the MICE products in Zimbabwe.

In addition to their meetings with exhibitors, the buyers were also taken on site visits in and around Bulawayo, Matopos National Park, Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls.

5

CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES

The International Business Conference, organised in conjunction with the NECF, attracted over 350 delegates. The conference, running under the theme, “Technology and Innovation: A Key Pillar for Zim-Asset Successful Implementation” was o�cially opened by the Senior Minister of State in the O�ce of the President, Honourable Ambassador Simon Khaya-Moyo on behalf of the Hon Vice President Mrs J Mujuru. Speakers came from Zimbabwe, People’s Republic of China, India, South Korea and United States of America.

Other investment workshops were held within the exhibition centre, namely the Zimtrade Export Awareness Workshop on 23 April, the Zimbabwe-China Investment Summit as well as the A’sambeni MICE Industry Workshops, organised in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority on 24 April.

The annual ZITF Golf Challenge took place at the Bulawayo Golf Club with a full �eld. Part of the proceeds will be going to assist the Tsholotsho Flood Victims.

The ZITF 2014 O�cial Opening Ceremony was held on 25 April with the Guest of Honour His Excellency President R. G. Mugabe o�ciating.

As usual, entertainment was provided during the public days (25-26 April) including; the Coca-Cola Drum Majorettes competitions, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Displays, Zimbabwe Prisons Display, Zimbabwe Republic Police display as well as the Ingwebu Tug-of-War Championships among others.

LOGISTICAL ISSUES

Expo Guys, South Africa were appointed the ZITF 2014 Infrastructure Providers for designer stands.

Accommodation, a perennial challenge, was once again co-ordinated by strategic partner Eco Logical Safaris.

Air Zimbabwe, the ZITF 2014 O�cial Carrier, had daily �ights, twice a day, on the Harare-Bulawayo route during ZITF.

The ZITF Service Providers Association (ZSPA) this year had 98 members. Exhibitors were advised to use approved service providers only.

6

INNOVATIONS

The overall outlook of the show was much improved as more exhibitors this year had special design features on their stands, some of which were provided by the ZITF Company using the new stand building system purchased last year.

Online registration and business matchmaking were introduced this year and uptake was encouraging.

Now that the badge barcoding system is in place, it will make visitor registration system more e�cient and other services like lead retrieval can be built onto it.

BULAWAYO AGRICULTURAL SHOW

The Bulawayo Agricultural Show is a concurrent event organised separately by the Bulawayo Agricultural Society and had its own distinct character and content.

The Fat stock Section was well supported with 96 entries, an increase from last year’s 90. In addition, a sale was held where the Champion Steer exhibited by Marcedale Farm and all the cattle were sold.

The Pedigree Section had 3 exhibitors, namely: Matopos Research Station, Biano Farm and Khami Prison. The quality of the cattle was very good.

In the Sheep and Goats Section, exhibits were received from Matopos Research Station, Esigodini Agricultural College, Maziwa Farm, Ezweni farm, Ted Wilmot and Chris Grant. On display were Dorper and Indigenous Sheep, and Boer, Kalahari Red and Indigenous Goats.

Pigs were exhibited by CR Ranching and Clievedon Farm.

The Produce Section had a total of 1,425 individual entries and 9 groups from rural, urban and peri-urban farmers. The Home Industry Section also recorded good entries while the Horse Section had 2 horses from Harare.

7

SPONSORS AND PARTNERS

The following organisations and corporates contributed in cash or kind to make ZITF 2014 a success.

The support is acknowledged and appreciated, with hopes for more of the same in future.

CONCLUSION

It is pleasing that 55 years on, the exhibition is still growing. Preliminary survey results show that

most of our exhibitors achieved their business objectives set for ZITF 2014 and will likely be back

again next year.

Exhibitors also indicated that they met the relevant target buyer groups and conducted a fair

amount of business, even among themselves.

The 56th edition takes place in 2015 from 21-25 April and we invite all interested exhibitors to

register early for this international event, which already looks promising.

NOMATHEMBA NDLOVU

GENERAL MANAGER

ZIMBABWE INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR COMPANY8

9