The Swedish Embassy in Zimbabwe and Open Trade Gate Sweden (OTGS) together with Zim Trade to host a one day seminar on September 2 in Harare to raise awareness on the rules and requirements for exporting from Zimbabwe to Sweden as well as to the European Union.

The seminar will also provide requisite market intelligence to assist Zimbabwean companies with a potential to penetrate these markets.

OTGS is a free of charge one-stop information centre that was set up by the Swedish government as a public service to exporters from developing countries. The centre also provides up-to-date information on accessing the European Union market of which Sweden is member.

It facilitates exports from developing countries to Sweden. Based on an analysis of Swedish imports, sector identified for possible export to Sweden by Zimbabwe is clothing and textile among others. Companies from this sector are encouraged to participate in the Seminar.

According to Trade Map, Sweden imported $4,9 billion of clothing and textiles from the world in 2014. But currently, there are no exports of this products happening from Zimbabwe to Sweden.

Zimbabwean companies producing clothing and textile products need to explore the Swedish market for which the companies having potential to export to Sweden are urged to utilise the Zimbabwe-EU Business Information Centre, which is housed at ZimTrade.