(HERALD) Local is better

Local is better!
By Golden Sibanda
Sunday, 09 January 2011 20:56

STAKEHOLDERS behind the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign have intensified calls for consumption of locally manufactured products after a South African firm admitted exporting recycled chickens to Zimbabwe.

The stakeholders said that the South African chickens could be hazardous to health in addition to being of inferior quality compared to local birds. It also emerged the chickens were reworked and injected with brine.

Stakeholders behind the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign include the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe and the Marketers’ Association of Zimbabwe. Efforts are underway to rope in the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.

Nicoz Diamond managing director Ms Grace Muradzikwa chairs the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign programme, an initiative of My Own Boss Ventures.

Buy Zimbabwe campaign spokesperson Mr Munyaradzi Hwengwere said the consumption of local poultry was more critical now amid fears that the practice by Supreme Poultry of South Africa could be the tip of an iceberg.

Government has since revoked Supreme Poultry’s export licence after the firm admitted recycling and repackaging chickens before sending them back to the markets, including Zimbabwe, under new expiry dates.

An investigation has also been instituted into the other South African firms that export chickens to Zimbabwe and Government may revoke their licences if they are deemed to be exporting reworked birds into the country.

The calls for a switch to locally made products come at a time industry is still battling with issues of capacity to be able to meet demand.

Said Mr Hwengwere: “It is a vicious cycle, isn’t it? But if we buy locally made products industry will be able to produce and reduce the cost of production and that would ultimately result in the reduction of prices,” said Mr Hwengwere.

He pointed that sticking to imports, some of which have lower prices compared to local products, would make it difficult for industry to cut the cost of production, which has a significant bearing on the ultimate cost of goods.

Mr Hwengwere applauded the Government’s move to ban the importation of products from Supreme Poultry and called for a broad-based investigation that goes beyond the poultry industry into other sectors.

The Buy Zimbabwe initiative recognises the need to support healthy competition, but says Zimbabwe requires an urgent response to the infiltration of the many substandard products and services in the country at the expense of the consumer, local business and the economy.

Zimbabwe’s reliance on imported products, especially from South Africa, has been a result of a decade-long economic instability, which has reduced industry’s capacity to produce at lower cost and meet demand.

“The Buy Zimbabwe Campaign clearly seeks to ensure that Zimbabwean products that have over the years epitomised these values regain their status and recognition in the hearts and minds of Zimbabwean consumers.”

In his 2011 National Budget Statement Finance Minister Tendai Biti projected that the country would import about US$3 billion worth of goods and export an estimated US$2,3 billion worth of exports this year.

While the volume of locally made products has increased in supermarkets, CZI contends that at 40 percent exports still account for an unacceptable proportion of products that are sold on the local retail market.