By Maxmillan Chikwati (Opinion)
HIGH-QUALITY products fail in exports every day because of poor packaging and labelling rather than poor quality.
International buyers make split-second decisions based on what they see on the shelf, and getting the right package and labelling right is the difference between a rejected shipment and a long-term contract.
Export packaging carries two jobs.
Compliance meets the destination country’s rules on safety, labelling, and product information so the shipment clears customs at all, and no amount of product quality rescues a shipment that fails it.
Commercial appeal is what makes a buyer choose one product over another once it has cleared, and it is where Zimbabwean exporters targeting the EU, the UAE, and China win or lose on shelf.
What Each Market Demands on the Label
The EU’s labelling rules sit under the Food Information to Consumers Regulation, requiring the product name in the destination language, ingredients by descending weight, allergens highlighted distinctly, net quantity in metric units, a best-before or use-by date, the food business operator’s details, country of origin, a nutrition declaration, and a batch number.
Organic products carry the EU organic logo with the certifying body’s code, and Fairtrade products the Fairtrade mark under Fairtrade International’s guidelines.
China is stricter still.
Under GACC’s food safety rules, no pre-packaged food enters without a Chinese-language label; a sticker added later does not satisfy the requirement.
The label must carry the product name, ingredients, origin, production and expiry dates, storage instructions, net content, importer and distributor details, a nutritional panel, and allergen declarations.
The facility’s registration code, issued through the separate GACC/CIFER system, must also appear on the packaging and every customs document, its absence is one of the most common reasons shipments are turned away.
The UAE requires Arabic on every food label, and an English-only label is turned away.
Arabic text must be at least as prominent as any English on the label, and where the two disagree, Arabic governs.
Arabic stickers are accepted if pre-approved by Dubai Municipality or Abu Dhabi’s Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, but printing Arabic directly onto the packaging is more professional and avoids approval delays.
Halal certification is mandatory for meat and anything animal-derived; it is not legally required for plant-based goods, but many UAE buyers will not stock a product without it regardless.
Within SADC, requirements are lighter but still enforced.
English labelling is generally accepted, a ZIMRA-certified Certificate of Origin secures preferential duty rates, and MRL test results may be required depending on the product.
Packaging That Can Survive the Journey
A label only matters if the package under it survives the trip.
Export packaging must withstand temperature swings inside a container, shifting humidity, and repeated handling at ports and warehouses.
Corrugated cardboard of at least five-ply, moisture-resistant coatings, reinforced corners, and palletisation on standard 1.2m by 1.0m pallets are the baseline.
Getting the Dates Right
Date formats vary by market.
The EU, the UK, and the UAE use day/month/year, the United States uses month/day/year, and China uses year/month/day.
The safest habit is to write the month as an abbreviated name, so a date such as 25 DEC 2026 reads the same way everywhere.
Best-before dates speak to quality and are what Zimbabwean exporters of macadamia, tobacco, maize, and soybeans will typically use, since these decline gradually rather than becoming unsafe; use-by dates are a safety marker reserved for perishables.
Shelf life remaining on arrival is a buyer expectation more than a fixed law, and it varies by market.
EU retailers commonly want 60 to 75 percent remaining, the UAE generally applies 50 percent minimum.
Chinese customs enforce strictly though the exact figure can depend on product category, and SADC buyers work off a similar benchmark but tend to be more flexible.
Either way, the planning step is the same: know your product’s shelf life, know what your buyer needs on arrival, and work backwards to set deadlines.
Traceability
Traceability lets a product be tracked back to its origin if something goes wrong, and buyers increasingly read it as a sign of a professionally run operation.
It matters for recalls, for isolating which batch had a problem, and for meeting the traceability expectations the EU, the United States, and China all apply to food imports in some form.
Every shipment should carry a unique batch or lot code on the retail unit, the master carton, and the shipping documents, including the invoice, packing list, and certificate of origin.
A workable code combines production date, product code, and facility code, so a batch of macadamia produced in Harare might read MAC-2026-08-26-HAR-001.
Buyers increasingly expect a QR code too, revealing farm of origin, production date, certification details, and test results on a scan, for Zimbabwean exporters, still rare enough to be a genuine point of difference.
