adminVandudzai Zirebwa Buy Zimbabwe
The just ended beneficiation conference held in Victoria Falls concluded that the country’s economic goals can only be achieved if stakeholders in different sectors of the economy start co-operating. The complexity of most industrial processes against the opening up of the global market now demands that we move out of single silos and begin to take a multi-sectoral approach to the way we work and think.
In the case of mining it is oblivious that for value addition or beneficiation to succeed there is need for the manufacturing sector to take an active interest in understanding the opportunities that may be unveiled through beneficiation.
For instance for the country to set up a platinum refinery it needs catalytic converters and this is an opportunity for the manufacturing sector.
Once we start beneficiating the country’s trade promotion body, Zimtrade, would be a central player in providing information on export opportunities and negotiating for companies to gain easy access into economic blocs such as COMESA, SADC and indeed the entire global market.
Sadly as has been the norm with various conferences that have been held in the country various sectors have not been working together as a unit.
Rather the preference by various stakeholders is to position themselves in specific bodies that speak to their interests but pay little attention to the importance of synergies across and within a value chain.
Just last week, Buy Zimbabwe held its first ever Bakers and Millers conference that sought to interrogate issues affecting relations between stakeholders in the two sector.
While bread is now a fairly available, what has largely gone unnoticed is that there are currently deep seated “wars” over flour supplies that have strained relations between millers and bakers.
Millers, who are importing most of the wheat that they are milling, have asked that Government tightens laws on the importation of flour by bankers to force them to buy the bulk of their flour from them. Bakers on the other hand are lobbying Government to allow them to import processed flour which they argue is cheaper and of better quality than the flour they are getting from the millers.
This comes as a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties last year, which stipulated that bakers will buy 75 percent of their flour locally as a way of encouraging local wheat production, has collapsed.
This has dashed the hopes of wheat farmers who are struggling to produce the cereal despite a host of challenges that include lack of capital, unreliable power supplies and low prices of their produce which are being influenced by cheap wheat being imported into the country.
To compound matters shops with in-house bakeries are now importing dough, which has seen them cutting down on their flour orders.
Various other suppliers within the value chain such as Anchor Yeast and Olivine that supply ingredients to the bakers have started feeling the pinch of this unregulated practice.
More ominous for the country is the fact that some companies in the two sectors might close further compounding unemployment in the country.
What is particularly puzzling is that the country is battling to raise US$25 million to produce sufficient wheat for the nation at a time when US$30 million is being spent on wheat and floor imports.
In other words we are content with creating jobs for other nations rather than supporting our farmers.
The national vision of resuscitating our agriculture and industries is lost as a result of companies that want to promote their own interest as opposed to those of the nation.
Initially it was the farmers who were crying, then the millers and now the bakers. If the trend continues we might not have a baking or milling industry to talk about.
Rather we will be relying on bread and other confectionery items imported from neighbouring countries particularly South Africa.
However, not all is doom and gloom as we have some bakers that have realised the need to promote local companies.
Lobels, which is slowly recovering from near collapse, has realised the immense benefits of not only buying local but of working with suppliers across the value chain.
Instead of shunning Anchor Yeast’s products in favour of imports from neighbouring countries such as Zambia they have engaged them in a win-win situation.
Rather than believing that oils from Olivine are too pricey, they have engaged the later and are now buying oil from Olivine at prices that are lower than those of imports and they are guaranteed a better quality product.
Lobels decision is very noble as it ties in with the broader vision of the nation. This should be emulated by all if we are serious about growing our economy.
Buy Zimbabwe will be holding its annual conference in April with a special focus of building broader synergies across the different sectors of our economy.
Focus will be on three areas wages versus productivity, retooling and funding industry and building domestic and export market share.
Expectations are that this conference will be an opportunity not only to explore opportunities that Zimbabwe has but provide solutions to challenges that our country faces as well as structuring relationships across various sectors.
In today’s global reality we have no choice but to synergise.
Till next week.
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Online Reporter