Briefing Paper

Women Entrepreneurship in Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (WEFFV) Project

“The production and marketing of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (FFV) has become an important economic activity for women in Zimbabwe for their livelihoods, income earning and food security. This brief discusses the factors that affect women’s competitiveness in the FFV sector. Competitiveness is here defined as the ability to compete in the domestic and
international markets, which is affected by both endogenous (capacity/ability, key factors of production such as climate, land, capital, labour and technology, efficiency
of farm operation, sustained quality production, and so forth) and exogenous factors (including policy environment,
services, market demand, prices, market access, infrastructure development, research and development.)”