The Sunday News
Nqobizitha Dhlamini Business Reporter
BUY Zimbabwe has lauded consumers for appreciating locally produced products as this improves the manufacturing sector’s viability thus creating more jobs and providing the much needed economic revival.
Business development executive Mr Alois Burutsa, said consumers were gradually starting to embrace the concept of purchasing local products and realising the bigger picture as well as the benefits of appreciating local produce.
“The appreciation of locally produced goods is a process that consumers are still learning to grasp but it is safe to say there has been great improvement especially in the sales from the Southern region.
Compared to the previous years, this festive season has realised significant improvement in terms of sales as more local products are being favoured by the consumers compared to the imports.
Although we have not reached our ultimate goal, we are quite confident that with time there will be less imports on the shelves,” he said.
Mr Burutsa said plans to intensify campaigns were in the pipeline as the initiative did not only benefit the manufacturers but the nation at large.
“Supporting local products means employment creation as unemployment is one of the major problems the country is facing at the moment. The industry needs major revival and the only way that can be achieved is through utmost support from the consumers.
We have had campaigns in the past and the significant change that is being noted especially this festive season is highly motivating for us to actually intensify the campaign so we can yield more results,” he said.
Mr Burutsa said more retailers were also showing support to the initiative and working with them towards promoting local goods.
“There also has been improvement in terms of the support that the retailers are showing the local goods, as you know retailers play a major role in ensuring the objective is realised,” he said.
However, Mr Burutsa said they were still facing resistance from some retailers who insisted their priority was on profitable products regardless of whether they were locally produced or not.
“We are still facing resistance though from some retailers who argue that for the sake of their business, products that sell fast and have high demand from customers get the strategic shelving,” he said.
He said there had been great improvement on the availability of local products on the market and that the prices had improved with local products being cheaper compared to their competitors on the shelves without compromising quality.
However, Retailers Association of Zimbabwe (RAZ) president, Mr Simba Phiri said although there had been a general improvement in the appreciation of the local products by consumers some local products had very high prices compared to the imports.
“Indeed there is an improvement on the appreciation of the local products as Zimbabweans are intelligent people and they have grasped the concept of purchasing local products as it benefits the nation as a whole.
The problem now lies with the pricing of the local products as the majority cannot afford it. Some local products are much more expensive than the imports for example the peanut butter produced locally is the best in terms of quality but also very expensive making it only for the elite at the end of the day,” said Mr Phiri.
Mr Phiri said if only the majority of people could afford buying local products, these would be preferred as local producers set high standards.
The Buy Zimbabwe campaign advocates for the purchase and consumption of locally produced goods and the revival of local industries.
