Buy Zimbabwe, a movement promoting local products is conducting its Buy Zimbabwe Week campaign from the 21st to the 25th of November as it intensified local product awareness ahead of festive season shopping.
Festive season shopping for most Zimbabweans traditionally starts around the end of November, which is also peak season for the manufacturing and retail sectors.
However, this year has seen a steady increase in external products on the local market that are sometime smuggled into the country and sold at a much cheaper price than local products, particularly on the informal market.
This has created an uneven playing ground for local manufacturers of products.
“The Buy Zimbabwe Week, which will run under the theme ‘Defend and grow Zimbabwean products market share’ will see a full week of activities including roadshows and activations at participating brands as we seek to raise top of mind awareness on local goods and services,” said Buy Zimbabwe general manager, Alois Burutsa.
To save foreign currency and jobs, as well as enhance market access for local goods during the festive season, Buy Zimbabwe introduced the Buy Zimbabwe Week.
During the week brand ambassadors will be stationed at selected wholesale and retail outlets in major cities and towns where they will educate consumers on the necessity of purchasing local goods and help them to identify local brands.
“The ambassadors will be deployed at retail and wholesale outlets in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Masvingo, Kwekwe and Zvishavane. Buy Zimbabwe has also forged partnerships with the Midlands State University and Chinhoyi University of Technology to ensure market access for products produced by youths and SMEs,”
“We have belief and confidence that if the local industry is supported by consumers, Zimbabwean companies will not only provide products which are cheaper and competitive, but can also satisfy local market demand and the export market while contributing to the achievement of government’s Vision 2030 of transforming Zimbabwe to upper middle income status.”
In May this year, Government authorized the suspension of duty on commodities including cooking oil, maize meal, toothpaste, bath soap, rice and others in an attempt to ensure that people with access to foreign currency can import.
This was meant to ensure that citizens have access to affordable basic commodities, in the face of substantial price increases in shops.
The move hit badly formal retailers and manufacturers are imported products suddenly flooded the market.
