No more flowers to the Netherlands

According to various sources the bond between the Netherlands and Zimbabwe had to be stronger to assure help for the poor population. The dictator Robert Mugabe started make reformations to increase trade economics but infact this was the beginning of the impoverishment of every citizen. In 2000 it all startet with the election of Mugabe who were able to rule the country. So, in 2008 he made a huge mistake because he set up a rule that forced foreign companies to handel 51 % of their rights the goverenment. This frightned foreign companies an blocked more trades with others. At the same time the US-Dollar got accepted as currency in Zimbabwe, which leans to more problems than solutions for any of their problems. Afterwards in 2013 Mugabe asked for support of the dutch.

Trade activities between Netherlands and Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2018.

The main sector of the trade activities are trees and other plants with a volume of  340,667,067 Euro. The biggest part of this sector are the commodity group of cut flowers and flower buds, prepared for florists. 

Cut Flowers Development 2008 to 2016

As you can see, there have been huge changes in the last seven years. The best example to give an overview on the econimic changes is the export of cut flowers. In 2009 Zimbabwe was able to earn about 180 Million Euros because of the export of these flowers. But shockingly in 2010 it decreased about 90 percent to nearly 18 Million Euros. And in 2016 it is only about 5 Million Euros.

Sector Development 

You can transfer this example for the general sector development. It is also noticeable that the whole sector shrinks. In 2009 the amount was about 334 million euro and just a year later it decreased to about 20 million Euros. The latest data shows that in 2016 the amount is only about 5 million Euros.

After the comparison of the two graphs it it remarkable that the Netherlands had a huge influence on the Zimbabwian economy. It is obvious that the dutch were one of the biggest influencer for their cut flower economy because they paid half of the amount. In 2009 the Netherlands paid 180 Million and the total was 334 million Euros.

Development of the aid activities

Also the aid activies changed a lot. 2010 they were splitted into a few topics e.g. relief co-ordination and emergency food aid. Now they have the focus on human rights. Netherlands helps Zimbabwe with an budget of more than 2,6 million Euro in 2017. And the major part with about 96 Percent stands for material relief assistance and services. One Percent is for the sector of the human rights. After the cholera epidemic the European Union imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe to increase the political pressure to against Mugabe.

Aid activitys per sector 2010

Aid activity per sector 2017

With recent changes and Mugabe having resigned maybe the way is now open for a new chapter in Zimbabwe's future with better economic conditions. 

Tags:aid zimbabwe netherlands trade


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