A number of supermarkets around the capital city of Harare have run out of mineral water and soft drinks with suppliers blaming shortages on the current foreign currency crisis facing Zimbabwe since the introduction of bond notes in 2016.
The situation has been worsened by the outbreak of cholera and the summer season which has resulted in a sharp rise in demand for bottled water.
Shop operators blame suppliers for failing to cope with the increase in demand saying most of their orders have not been delivered.
“It’s not our problem if you do not get mineral water and soft drinks in our outlets, Delta beverages is not delivering our orders in time.
“We once ordered for some soft drinks and beer sometime back but up to now they have not delivered anything and we are having a problem with our clients they think it’s our ignorance,” said one staff member at a Choppies Supermarket in Sunningdale.
“The demand for mineral water is very high especially for the 500 milliliters and 1.5 liters.
“There is high demand for water yet the supply is low, we have been trying to convince our suppliers to meet the target especially during this period where there is a cholera outbreak, people need purified water but there seem to be no action at all,” said Brian Chaparadza a business man.
“Our consumers do not understand the law of demand and supply they think it’s us retailers who determine but we are also suffering because we need money also.
The survey proved that about three quarters of retailers are blaming the current government for failing to allocate foreign currency to the suppliers hence they can not be able to import raw materials.
“I think the government should do something in terms of foreign currency availability because as you can see we are going back to the 2008 scenario.
“We started experiencing low supply of soft drinks towards elections,things have changed the demand is too high and we are now having a challenge from consumers who then refuse to buy food in our restaurants because of soft drinks shortages so we really really plead with Delta they must do something as soon as possible.
“As you can see the fridges are empty and it doesn’t have a good picture for a huge supermarket like this,” said OK supermarket manager who refused with his name.
In an interview with 263Chat, Delta Beverages, group secretary Alex Makamure revealed that foreign currency allocations have been particularly low making it difficult for them to import key raw materials needed to maintain normal stock levels.
“Our soft drinks plants are running at 30% or 1.5 weeks per month due to shortages of key imported raw materials.
“Forex allocations have been particularly low since the elections at end of July.
“Beer supplies are largely normal save that there is very high demand. We have maintained prices from 2013,” said Makamure.
