The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) has called for urgent action to address both speculative pricing practices and supply chain inefficiencies of sugar in the country.
In a statement, CZR president Denford Mutashu expressed deep concern over the widening gap between the recommended retail price and the actual prices being charged to consumers.
“The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers has noted with serious concern the speculative pricing of sugar on the local market at the moment. Recommend retail price ranges between US$2.60 (ZiG 33.75) to US$2.80 (ZiG 37.80) for 2kgs of both brown and white sugar. The price of sugar is currently sitting at US$4.00 (ZiG54) per 2kgs despite the supplier (ZSS) price not having gone up,” said Mutashu
He called for the need to rectify the supply chain disruptions to mitigate the prevalence of arbitrage pricing in the market.
“CZR however notes with dissatisfaction the number of widely branch networked retailers and wholesalers struggling to access product supply from the supplier. This situation must be fixed to reduce seemingly arbitrage pricing in the market emanating from the informal sector. There are ongoing engagements with Zimbabwe Sugar Sales (ZSS) to ensure supply into formal channel retail and wholesale stabilizes and all delivery backlogs are cleared,” he said
In light of these developments, CZR has called upon regulatory bodies, including the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Licensing Inspectorate and the RBZ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), to crack down on unscrupulous traders selling sugar above the RRP.
“CZR therefore implores the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Licensing Inspectorate and the RBZ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to pounce on all unscrupulous traders selling sugar above the RRP. It is our duty as the business community to come up with a healthy and sustainable pricing model for the benefit of the nation at large,” said Mutashu
