Flower exports
Zimbabwe’s seeds of hope
Amid the economic collapse of Zimbabwe, a flower-seed export business is a beacon of success. It’s not just to the benefit of the company owners; it’s restoring ‘economic dignity’ to the country’s rural farmers
When Charlene Mathonsi graduated with an animal science degree from the University of Zimbabwe in 2008, she had little idea she’d end up co-founding a thriving flower-seed export business that’s helping rural farmers in her country make ends meet.
Amalubarina Flowers, which she established with the help of her neighbour Douglas Alexander, has helped about 1,000 small-scale farmers across Zimbabwe escape dire poverty thanks to seed exports that are sold across the world. Central to the success of the project is the close partnership Mathonsi has forged with Alexander, whose career in agriculture was almost cut short by Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reform programme of the early 2000s...
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