Mozambique - a happy hunting ground

Mozambi que has for some time been a happy hunting ground for South African suppliers, and while we’re not seeing the increases of the early 90s, it has become a very good stable market for SA products across the board, says Bonnett. “There’s still a huge amount of development going on and a lot is beginning to move north of Maputo. “We have traditionally looked purely at southern Mozambique, largely Maputo, but with the coal mines developing in central Mozambique combined with the Tete corridor development, Beira will start to pick up. “You’re also starting to see more tourism development in central Mozambique away from Maputo.” People working on hotel developments are talking about $400m worth of tourism development outside Maputo comprising large hotels and resort complexes, says Bonnett. A lot of it is funded by Saudi Arabian money, which is a new development in Africa. South Africa officially exported R6.2bn last year to Mozambique, which is similar to 2005. H owever, if one factors in the huge amount of informal trade through to Mozambique via towns such as Nelspruit, it will be much higher than this.