GMAZ takes food campaign to the streets

Business Reporter
FOOD producers will take the campaign to promote locally manufactured products to the streets in a bid to enhance consumers’ preference to Zimbabwean brands.

The street campaign to be held in Mutare on November 6 and 7 is being organised by the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, the apex representative body of the milling industry.

GMAZ said the street campaign will take the mould of a food expo where an assortment of food products such as bread, maize meal, rice, cooking oil and dairy products, among others will be on display.

The event will be held on Street B, between Meikles and Spar.

GMAZ chairman Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said the street campaign is aimed at providing a platform for local food companies to showcase their products directly to the consuming public ahead of the festive season.

“The idea is to create an opportunity for producers to interface directly with consumers. We seek to enhance the consumers’ preference to their local brands and increase the brand equity of local products on the market. The food industry is slowly recovering from the effects of the pressure exerted by foreign brands that have dominated the local markets since dollarisation in 2009,” said Mr Musarara.

The street campaign against imports comes in the wake of retreating capacity utilisation in local manufacturing companies.

A manufacturing survey released by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries this week shows that the real exchange rate over-valuation relative to the South African rand has caused a serious loss in external competitiveness, as it has made imports cheaper than domestically produced goods and exports more expensive.

As a result of increasing demand for imports and dwindling exports, the external sector position continues in deficit, with an estimated current account deficit of $3,1 billion this year.

Processed food imports surpassed the one billion dollar mark in the past three years.

“The Mutare Food Expo is the fourth edition after we successfully hosted food expos in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru. It has become imperative for local food companies to have direct interface with their actual consumers and introduce new products. It also helps producers to gather market intelligence that is critical in the product development processes,” he said.

Judging from the responses from the three expos held so far, Mr Musarara said the platform is assisting local food producers to increase their capacity utilisation and in turn provide a lucrative market for local agricultural produce such as maize, wheat, soya beans, potatoes, milk and many others.

“This event works on the successful implementation of the ZimAsset blue print and the 10 point plan espoused by President Mugabe,” he said.