The Sunday Mail
Munyaradzi Hwengwere
It is often said that perception is reality. In Zimbabwe, this has often-times suggested that the country’s goods and services are priced beyond the reach of consumers and produced without due regard for quality.
In contrast, imported products are seen as better priced and of superior quality.
The Buy Zimbabwe Week, November 21-25, was aimed at understanding progress local producers have made against imported products.
It turned out that perception is actually not reality.
It is not a fact that Zimbabwean products are of inferior quality compared to imported goods.
It is also not true that local manufacturers always lose out against foreign competitors when it comes to quality and packaging.
This is most manifest in the agricultural and food value chain, where local products used to occupy below 30 percent of shelf space 11 years ago.
However, today, they account for above 90 percent of shelf space in some large retail and wholesale outlets.
While our retailers have supported the buy local initiative, their reason for stocking local goods goes way beyond their love for Zimbabwe.
The average consumer has always trusted local products.
However, as a result of adverse macro-economic conditions, there was a slump in the availability of locally made goods.
Understandably, after emerging from a hyperinflationary economic environment, the period after 2010 saw local manufacturers working towards retooling and could not be competitive against imported products.
In most instances, local products were unavailable, and when they were in stock, they could not compete against smuggled or deliberately under-priced imports.
It must be remembered that dollarisation ushered in an era where foreign suppliers made a killing by bringing in their products and walked away with wads of United States dollars.
Many sought to supply their products at below-cost prices as long as they got the greenback.
All these factors conspired to make local products unavailable in sufficient quantities and at the right price.
Though counterproductive in the long term, it would have made sense for Government, in the name of low prices, to turn a deaf ear to calls by industry and Buy Zimbabwe to work on reversing the growing menace of imports.
Today, we can applaud unity, focus and sensitivity to consumer needs and proudly say within the food sector, by and large, this trend has been reversed.
Local producers have taken up their rightful place and now command leadership in the wholesale and retail sector.
Even within the informal market, Zimbabweans are stocking local products.
Our focus is now on defending these gains and drawing lessons to implement in other sectors.
The situation in the textile, leather and mining sectors is different.
When it comes to what Zimbabweans wear, beauty products they use and what goes into construction, apart from bricks and cement, we still depend on imports.
Historically, this never used to be the case.
The Archers, Lee Jeans and many clothing manufacturers in Bulawayo not only dominated the local market, but were big exporters to regional countries and beyond.
Zimbabweans barely knew any shoe outside of Bata and G & D Shoes.
The issue is on how we can use experiences in the food sector to make gains in the other sectors.
In the mining sector, only 12 percent of the US$2 billion order book is retained in Zimbabwe.
There was a time when most consumables, chemicals and equipment were mainly procured locally.
Again, a trip around Bulawayo, Gweru and Harare’s industrial areas will reveal the extent to which we have surrendered our market share.
Despite growth of the mining sector, our total employment in the large mining companies is below 35 000.
At its height, Shabanie Mine ensured over 20 000 survived.
There are some who believe our present situation must be allowed to continue because it reflects the reality of our situation.
We must say No to these sentiments.
An obvious starting point should be to engage businesses that support areas where we are lagging behind.
Miners must commit themselves to procuring a minimum quantity of what they use locally.
We have also allowed disorganisation in the clothing sector for too long.
There are literally millions of informal traders who earn their living out of selling second-hand clothes.
These are not necessarily bad people; they need to earn a living.
Experiences from the food sector suggest that incorporating informal traders into a value chain comes with rewards.
The clothing sector must engage informal traders and formulate programmes that ensure they are turned into an effective frontline team. Of course, this means Government must think twice about allowing second-hand clothes into the country.
We must decide what we need — jobs or recycled clothes. Cottco must be an enabler in the local clothing sector, rather than a collector of raw cotton.
We need this strategic institution speaking more and fighting to ensure the clothing sector is rebuilt.
It also makes little sense for Zimbabwe to seek to transform the livestock sector without linking it to the manufacturing sector.
Bata now stands in isolation fighting against a glut of imported shoes.
At its height, Bata employed over 5 000 people. Our observation is that the shoe market has not shrunk, but grown. If well supported, Bata can double its present capacity.
We have, as Zimbabwe, shown that it is possible to transform ourselves from a once-abysmal situation to one where we lead in the provision of quality, affordable goods and services.
The reforms that have taken place in the agricultural and food value chains suggest that we can take the same formulas and apply them to sectors where, as a country, we are still limping.
Mining, textiles, beauty and pharmaceutical sectors are still lagging behind.
These sectors must be vigorously supported so that they take their rightful place in the market space.
Zimbabwe is, indeed, on a recovery path.
What we need is to take stock of areas in which we have succeeded against all odds and apply these to those where we are weak.
If we do so, we will surely become an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Buy Zimbabwe for jobs, wealth and pride.
Munyaradzi Hwengwere is chairperson of Buy Zimbabwe, a market access organisation created to promote preference of locally produced goods and services.
