adminColumbus Mabika Herald Reporter
The Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has launched a price monitoring exercise to ensure retailers sell grain products like mealie-meal, rice and flour at agreed prices. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers and GMAZ in March this year, agreed on reasonable prices of mealie meal, rice, flour, and salt.
Teams of price monitoring officers have since been deployed countrywide to check on compliance.
GMAZ said those found overcharging risk withdrawal of grain product supplies.
This comes at a time prices of commodities were unjustifiably rising to levels beyond the reach of many.
In an interview yesterday, GMAZ media and public relations manager Mr Garikai Chauza said the association was serious on the issue and all retailers must comply.
“On Tuesday this week we deployed a number of price monitors to check whether retailers are in compliance with the stipulated charging agreed prices on our products, chief among them, mealie meal, rice, flour, and salt.
“GMAZ will not hesitate cut supplies to unscrupulous retailers found overcharging basic commodities,” he said.
“The monitoring officers will interrogate retailers whenever they discover overcharging or unjustified price mark-ups. Retailers who are not complying will face blacklisting,”
Mr Chaunza said the move is aimed to restore sanity on the market.
He said the valid pricing model is based on the mark-up margins agreed on during the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between GMAZ and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) that gave retailers and wholesalers room to put a mark-up of between 12 percent and 20 percent, including the 2 percent tax, on their selling price.
Mr Chaunza said millers and retailers should thrive to be self-regulatory in setting up realistic prices for basic commodities so as to ensure minimum interference from the Government.
“It is important that we try by all means to avoid the incidences of 2005 to 2006, where millers and retailers would blame each other for price increases and Government would have no choice, but to enforce price controls.”
Therefore millers and retailers should unite. We are facing a serious drought season, which will result in low supply of basic commodities so we would like to urge retailers to be responsible in pricing of goods,” said Mr Chaunza.
Further, Mr Chaunza said no retailer or wholesaler should reject bond notes and other electronic payments when transacting.
CZR president Mr Denford Mutashu said his organisation is working on engaging rural businesses to factor in realistic mark-ups inclusive of transport costs.
“We want to accommodate retailers from rural areas by coming up with additional mark-ups that will arise from additional costs that they incur in the event that millers do not deliver products to their door steps,” he said.
Government last month said it is strengthening policies and resource support through the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) to stabilise prices and cushion consumers from businesses bent on profiteering by some unscrupulous retailers.
Online Reporter