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Vandudzayi Zirebwa Buy Zimbabwe
The Minister of Industry and Commerce Mike Bimha, a major proponent for the revival of Zimbabwean Industry, has once again hit the nail on the head.
This was by reminding us that tariffs are essentially a short-term measure meant to ensure that our economy is protected from substandard goods and structured to offset against losses incurred from countries that are dumping goods in Zimbabwe.
Ultimately Buying Zimbabwe must be about building the long term competitiveness of our local industry and commerce rather than erecting a protectionist wall.
At no point must the Buy Zimbabwe initiative be confused with a call for blind protectionism as well as a drive to push down the throat of consumers our own sub standard offerings.
This will be akin to forming a national soccer team on the assumption that the referee will always award you penalties and deny the opposition deserved scores.
Of course when that referee changes reality will stare right back at you with unpleasant consequences. Like our own Asia-gate scandal recovery becomes slow and very painful.
Rather, Buying Zimbabwe must be about Government and local stakeholders working together to ensure that local products and services are given preference on the basis of quality, price, innovation and their capacity to create local employment and wealth.
Sam Walton himself the founder of the global retail giant, Wal-Mart, confesses in his biography that at some point he had come to the view that American goods were inherently costly and inferior to imported goods. However when his store chose to support the Buy America ‘Bring it Home’ initiative on the basis of an agreed criteria there were surprised by the gains.
For starters he realised that the biggest challenge was that once retailers lock themselves into a limited set of suppliers they limit the growth of other competitive offerings that may not be part of the mainstream. Secondly by engaging manufacturers from across the entire country, they discovered that quite a number were able to beat foreign products that were becoming dominate.
In the end the Bring it back Home proved immensely popular, saved many American jobs and spared Wal-Mart from the hassle of logistics associated with organising imports.
In many instances we give imports more credit than they deserve and so doing we lock out a number of emerging entrepreneurs that will have unearthed the formula of challenging these foreign offerings.
The times we are in require that retailers search wider and manufacturers dig deeper into solutions that are needed to price better, innovate better and challenge harder in defence of the mother land. The good thing is that some companies have emerged victorious in this cut throat global market.
Indeed there are some companies that have sought to challenge dominate perceptions against local goods and made strides in area that we thought as country we had lost market share forever.
The cooking oil sector is one such area where the market is now being dictated by a local product. We also notice that Dendairy have followed the example of Dairibord who decided to enter the Milk sachet market.
Imported products do not have an inherent right to beat us on the local market. As the Minister has rightly observed, the key must be in instituting a far playing ground.
It makes no sense to try to compete knowing conditions are so titled against us that before even producing you know our fellow South African manufacturers have 50 percent of their costs given back to them by their Government.
It also makes little economic logic to know that for you to export you must certify your products yet goods that come here do so without any requirement for any form of standard.
Just recently the Buy Zimbabwe team had a tour of the newly built Chinese mall, The Longcheng Plaza close to the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
The purpose of the tour was to assess the extent to which the mall had accommodated Zimbabwean goods and businesses and depending on the outcome recommend ways in which a true partnership could be established.
While we observed a number of shops that belong to Zimbabweans, the ratio of local goods compared to Chinese ones is perhaps in the ratio of 10 to one in favour of the latter.
A key feature of the mall is a huge supermarket that has been set up there. The supermarket is entirely dominated by Chinese products with a sprinkling of Zimbabwean goods.
The foreign products range from detergents, toothpaste, soaps and variety of things that we have generally associated with local companies.
Interestingly, contrary to general perception on the competitiveness of local goods, the prices that are prevailing within the supermarket are very closely related to those that attain in most retail outlets in the country. In fact in many instances the foreign products are more expensive than the local ones.
As such the Buy Zimbabwe team did not witness a major price differential with local goods. There is thus room to procure locally without affecting customer offering.
Government has of late been emphasising on areas that are reserved for locals and has listed the retail sector as one such area.
The obvious expectation is that by favouring locals within the retail sector Government is promoting the overall economic interest rather than creating a scenario where locals become vehicles of undermining their own local companies.
This is especially so in instances where prices do not justify why local products should be excluded. While Government has yet to legislate on minimum local content for retail outlets and relied on moral suasion, indications are that there is need to put in place parameters that ensure that our retailers abide to certain basic requirements.
This is important if we consider that most local retailers have begun embracing the Buy Zimbabwe initiative and now working closely with the local industry on issues critical to enhancing presence, competitiveness and general supply.
Surely Zimbabwe does not want to borrow from the sad scenario that pertains across our borders in Zambia where a number of new malls have been built by South Africans only to see huge amounts now being externalised.
In as much as that economy is reported to have a gross domestic product estimated at US$22 billion and almost twice that of Zimbabwe, because of such leakages the revenue collection by the two countries is almost at par.
In his recent budget statement Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa made a passionate plea for our country to desist from importing all manner of trinkets and worsening our current account. The time has come to engage all those that are still to realise the seriousness of our liquidity crunch to work with the domestic industry for mutual benefit.
Buying Zimbabwe is critical to saving our economy and let’s work to ensure that in 2014, our country wins. Till next week. God Bless.
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