What Zimbabwe buys, and from whom.
Zimbabwe imported USD 6.1bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 27 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries Zimbabwe imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Zimbabwe is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Zimbabwe.
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1
South Africa
Share of Zimbabwe's imports43 per centChangelevel with 2022USD 2.6bnin 2024 -
2
China
Share of Zimbabwe's imports23 per centChangeup 24 per cent on 2022USD 1.4bnin 2024 -
3
United Arab Emirates
Share of Zimbabwe's imports5 per centChangeup 95 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 276min 2024 -
4
Zambia
Share of Zimbabwe's imports4 per centChangeup 38 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 229min 2024 -
5
India
Share of Zimbabwe's imports3 per centChangedown 1 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 162min 2024 -
6
Mauritius
Share of Zimbabwe's imports2 per centChangefrom USD 2m in 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 148min 2024 -
7
Japan
Share of Zimbabwe's imports2 per centChangeup 193 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 111min 2024 -
8
Mozambique
Share of Zimbabwe's imports2 per centChangenew since 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 93min 2024 -
9
Germany
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 72 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 73min 2024 -
10
United Kingdom
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 57 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 72min 2024 -
11
Egypt
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 94 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 57min 2024 -
12
Italy
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 117 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 53min 2024 -
13
Eswatini
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 41 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 51min 2024 -
14
United States
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 34 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 41min 2024 -
15
Botswana
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangedown 35 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 33min 2024 -
16
Belgium
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 31 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 28min 2024 -
17
Netherlands
Share of Zimbabwe's imports1 per centChangeup 81 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 28min 2024 -
18
Russia
Share of Zimbabwe's importsunder 1 per centChangenew since 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 27min 2024 -
19
Malaysia
Share of Zimbabwe's importsunder 1 per centChangefrom USD 2m in 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 27min 2024 -
20
Ireland
Share of Zimbabwe's importsunder 1 per centChangeup 128 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 26min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Zimbabwe with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is South Africa's part of everything Zimbabwe imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.