Middlesex University co-leads project to help Zimbabwe farmers export to UK

Academics support an innovative project to help 300 smallholder farmers export their produce to the UK

Middlesex University is co-leading a project that will enable farmers in Zimbabwe to get vital accreditation which will allow them to sell to major UK supermarkets.

This is part of a wider project called Green Farm Africa co-led by academics from Middlesex’s Centre for Enterprise, Environment and Development Research (CEEDR) and GreenFin research cluster.

Green Farm Africa is a consortium of businesses and universities using smart tech and green environmentally sensitive farming techniques to improve the working practices and resilience of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this Zimbabwe project, they will offer farmers training and support through its partner EnrichGeo Technologies and UK market access through buyer consortium consultant Destination Produce who import food products for major UK retail buyers, including M&S, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl and Aldi.

Middlesex is heading the academic training support resource alongside colleagues from the University of Lincoln and Royal Holloway University London and has developed a 'Green Stamp' with third party accreditation agency Bureau Veritas, which is a more accessible and affordable sustainable export certification that enables African smallholders to access UK and potentially EU retail buyer markets.

 “Middlesex University is delighted to contribute to the transformation of Sub Saharan Africa farming through the Green Farm Africa initiative and our Green Stamp accreditation which promotes sustainable and ethical food supply chains and global food security.”

Robyn Owen, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Finance   

Lakshmi Narasimhan Chari, an Associate Professor in Operations at Royal Holloway who has previously worked at Middlesex, said: “Through this project we are addressing three problems faced by Zimbabwean farmers: namely a lack of knowhow about good agricultural practices, a lack of access to affordable certifications of their produce and a lack of market access. We will achieve this goal by bringing UK buyers to consider purchasing Zimbabwean produce and bringing organisations and academic expertise together.”

Green Farm Africa is now in discussions with multiple private farmer investment groups across Sub Saharan Africa.

This innovative project, which spans 14 countries including with Nigeria and Zimbabwe, targets the 60% of Sub-Saharan farming dominated by small-scale operations. Research indicates the region could produce two to three times current cereal crop yields, with the African Development Bank projecting that the Sub-Saharan Africa agricultural market will reach $1 trillion by 2030.

Middlesex academics will report on the Green Farm Africa project at the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) conference in Cork, Ireland, in November 2026, which is the UK and Ireland's largest academic and practitioner conference on small business.

Find out more about Green Farm Africa and the work of CEEDR and GreenFin Research.

Learn about the Middlesex University Faculty of Business and Law.