Editorial Comment: First Choice Wholesale concept noble if handled with care

money. What was needed was a creative way of meeting the shopping needs of rural people at affordable prices.
It is for this reason that we welcome the concept of First Choice Wholesale launched in Mt Darwin by President Mugabe on Friday. Under the First Choice Wholesale initiative, the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development links some manufacturers of locally produced goods with its nationwide network of distributors or co-operative warehouses.
By doing this they bring the wholesales into rural environments enabling shop operators to cut down on transport costs. The goods then reach the people at reasonable prices.
If the shop owners cut out greed it means rural people will be able to make their dollars go a long way. At the launch of the wholesale in Mt Darwin several products were selling for lower prices than in Harare which is within the vicinity of most manufacturers.
In its purest form the concept is a winner. Corrupt practices have to be kept out, especially the creation of artificial shortages. The ministry needs to watch this like a hawk and ensure that there are no stock-outs. Once shortages arise, whether real or artificial, prices will start rising and what should have been a blessing for the people will turn out to be a curse.
We hope the political leadership in areas where these wholesales have been introduced will also help protect them. It is most often the senior officials that start the rot by buying in bulk to create shortages and end up profiteering.
This is what has killed the noble concept of subsidised agricultural inputs meant for the less privileged members of our society. The inputs have ended up in warehouses of the rich who should have been buying unsubsidised inputs. The problem has been so prevalent that it is too risky to continue with the programme of subsidised inputs. Even the Presidential Inputs Scheme has been abused.
One other admirable thing about the First Choice Wholesale concept is that it promotes the distribution of locally manufactured products countrywide. It is an affirmation of the Buy Zimbabwe concept. We hope local manufacturers who have been complaining about the flooding of imported products will see this huge market that Zimbabwe’s rural hinterland is offering them.
Local manufacturers should then strive to keep their prices as low as possible and make their money from the volumes that they can push into the densely populated rural areas. They have to accept that the ability to purchase in rural areas is not as high as in urban areas but they can still do good business if their prices are reasonable.
Perhaps with the success of the First Choice Wholesale concept we can see the revival of co-operatives. The early years of Zimbabwe’s independence saw the co-operative movement flourishing throughout the country. By then the concept of “mushandirapamwe” was well embraced as Zimbabwe pursued its socialist ideals that had worked well elsewhere in countries that supported the liberation struggle.
What proved to be the undoing of the co-operatives was lack of leadership, management and financial skills, which could easily have been addressed through sustained training and supervision. The fact that the Government has maintained a department of co-operative development in Minister Sithembiso Nyoni’s ministry is confirmation that the leadership still believes that the concept of co-operatives can still work.
It is unfortunate that as the media we have not profiled enough the success stories of the co-operative movement as the failures in several housing co-operatives have drawn much of the publicity. The agricultural co-operatives have done much better, especially those that are led by women.
The First Choice Wholesale concept is a high-profile one given that the President had to open it. It should be allowed to thrive and serve as the flagship of the whole thrust to promote small enterprises and co-operatives.