Economic Activities: Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing, Trade and Transport
Types of activity
Economies are divided into primary activities that take raw materials from the earth (farming, mining, forestry, fishing), secondary activities that process them (manufacturing, electricity), and tertiary activities that provide services (trade, transport, tourism, banking).
Agriculture
Agriculture employs most Zimbabweans. Maize is the staple food crop, while tobacco is the leading agricultural export earner. Other crops include cotton, sugar cane (Hippo Valley and Triangle), tea and coffee in the Eastern Highlands, horticulture and groundnuts. Farming ranges from small communal and A1/A2 resettlement holdings to large-scale commercial estates, and drought makes irrigation vital.
Mining
Mining earns most foreign currency. Gold is the biggest mineral earner; platinum group metals come from the Great Dyke (Zimplats, Mimosa, Unki); chrome, nickel, diamonds (Marange), coal (Hwange) and lithium are also important. Mining brings income but also pollution and land degradation.
Manufacturing, trade and transport
Manufacturing is concentrated in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru - food processing, beverages, cement, textiles and fertilisers. Trade depends on routes to the sea: Beitbridge (South Africa), Plumtree (Botswana), Forbes and Nyamapanda (Mozambique), Chirundu (Zambia). Rails and roads link these to Harare and Bulawayo, and airports handle exports of flowers and horticulture.
Trap: Zimbabwe exports mainly raw materials and imports fuel, machinery and medicines, so it often runs a trade deficit - do not confuse exports with imports.
Rule of thumb: ask "raw → made → service" to classify any economic activity correctly.