CRZ president hails Government

Paidamoyo Bore
CONFEDERATION of Zimbabwe Retailers president, Denford Mutashu, has hailed the Government for the foreign currency auction system, which is helping retailers and wholesalers to remain in business.

He said the retail industry was still reeling from the Covid-19 effects.

Speaking during a retailers and wholesalers’ indaba yesterday, Mutashu said there was need for the Government and retailers to continually work together to alleviate the impacts of Covid-19.

“The Government and business operators should continue to work together to improve the pricing of goods and services, reducing the negative impact of the multiple exchange rates, illegal parallel market exchange rate, inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, availability of the foreign currency and improvement of the ease of doing business environment,” Mutashu said.

He also urged retailers and wholesalers to avoid being overly dependent on supplies from other countries, which was also influencing price increases.

The retailers and wholesalers’ indaba is held annually to deliberate viability issues affecting the sector as well as to come up with possible solutions. This year’s indaba was held under the theme “Promoting Local Currency Use Through Exchange Rate Management, Pricing And Inflation Stability”.

An economist, Dr Reneth Mano, also echoed similar sentiments on the impact of imported goods.

“Private sector is acquiring foreign currency to import products, which are being produced locally, and this is causing a surge in pricing,” he said.

He also called for structural adjustments and support to small-scale farmers.

“What needs to be done to small-scale farmers is just refinement and packaging of products they (small scale farmers) produce, which will add value and,” Dr Mano said.

He acknowledged that small-scale farmers were doing much better than some those on larger farms.

“The country can tame inflation as long as the right thing is being done.

“We have the ingredients to tame this inflation.”

He acknowledged the effects of the Ukraine and Russia conflicts but urged citizens.

Chief Director in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Dr Douglas Runyowa, who was representing Permanent Secretary Dr Mavis Sibanda, said his Ministry has noticed the skyrocketing prices.

He promised to take action on retail shops which were displaying prices which consumers different from what consumers pay at the till points.

“We have come up with National Development and Local Content Policies that seek to promote local production and value addition.

“As a Ministry (we make) a clarion call to our industries to join hands with the Government in entrenching local production of goods so as to eliminate the imported inflation,” Runyowa said.