The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo and Charleen Ndlovu, Business Reporters
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) says it will continue monitoring prices of commodities as it moves to curb unwarranted increases by unscrupulous businesses during and after the festive season.
CRZ president Mr Denford Mutashu said there was a need to pull out all stops and guard against the price distortions prevailing on the market stating that failure to do so was likely to lead to further exploitation of consumers during and just after the festive period.
“We are aware that prices right now are not fair but we will continue to engage stakeholders in an effort to maintain them. We have seen some indicators, which are on the negative when we look at school fees. We are aware that some schools have raised fees by 100 percent-200 percent in certain aspects.
“We have seen that prices of school material like stationery have gone up by about between 50 to 100 percent. So we are trying to engage the relevant stakeholders and make sure that the current situation is contained as we approach the back to school period soon after Christmas,” said Mr Mutashu.
Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association chairperson Mr Jeremy Youmans said the significant price increase of schoolwear by retailers was unwarranted as manufacturers had only effected a marginal increase.
“As manufacturers, we have not significantly increased our prices and so the high retail prices are not due to us. Possibly, the high pricing is being applied to imported schoolwear. On this basis, we would encourage consumers to try and source locally manufactured schoolwear, and, if necessary, to source direct from the manufacturers,” he said.
Mr Mutashu said manufacturers should ensure there are adequate stocks of goods on the market so as to guard against artificial shortages, a situation which is likely to accelerate price increases.
“We also call upon manufacturers to ensure that goods are adequately available so that we don’t experience any panic. We have been informed of inadequate supplies of beverages by a number of suppliers with the manufacturers indicating to be experiencing inadequate raw materials to enable them to supply the market with sufficient quantities,” he said.
