Buy Zimbabwe a
very noble idea….
Bulls n Bears intends to take the Buy Zimbabwe campaign further than mere
talk. You see, the Bulls n Bears subscribers are the consumers, the manufacturers and the policymakers and
business leaders, etc.
These subscribers will implement all our collective Bullish Thoughts on Buy Zimbabwe that we are sharing
this last quarter of the year.
It cannot be overemphasized that the
failure to produce a quality Zimbabwe product, the failure to buy a Zimbabwe
produced product is at the core of all our challenges, liquidity, high
interest rates (because we send the money that we are supposed to lend, to
fetch mineral water from SA etc), unemployment, low income levels, etc.
Zimbabweans need to prove that they
are a capable people by coming up with radical and well-conceived measures to
extricate themselves from the current sea of challenges. China did it by itself.
We are all encouraged to become
dedicated ambassadors of locally produced goods.
You can still buy Kefaloes
yorghuts, ice cream etc. Most dairy products locally produced are now fairly
priced perhaps due to increasing competition in the sector. The sacrifice has
to start now. Olivine reduced the
price of cooking oil to within a reasonable variance with imports.
Producers should take it further
by addressing the following;
- · Supply chain efficiencies,
- · Product quality and service quality issues,
- · Communication with consumers (they need to create visibility and communicate the good qualities of local margarine, chicken, soap, Capri fridges, WRS TV, locally assembled vehicles etc), for example, consumers need to know that whatever was in the mealie meal that was marked "No under 12" could still be in the milk, margarine, chicken, potato crips etc,
- · Agriculture needs to be addressed by people who take people's lives seriously without room for politics in supporting all levels of farming (communal, commercial, resettlement, peri urban etc). Rain fed agriculture ceased to be sustainable long long back, many just do not understand why resource providers just do not wake up to that FACT.
Consumers’ Big But…
Many consumers and analysts are of
the opinion that while the BUY Zimbabwe campaign, noble as it may seem, is
overlooking critical economic factors that need to be addressed.
Rather than trying to shove “Zimbabwean”
products down consumers’ throats in the name of improving unemployment and all
that jazz, it is necessary to critically look at why the companies are
uncompetitive in the first place.
Corporate
looting...
Corporate Executives at these so
called proudly Zimbabwean companies
somehow find it befitting to match or
even out-do their “comparable” peer execs in foreign companies
by giving themselves ridiculous perks and loot and they expect the Zimbabwean
consumer downstream to pay for their greed.
That is a raw deal whichever way
you look at it. These execs should show consumers just how proudly Zimbabwean
they are by aligning their perks and
remunerations to the conditions in which their firms are operating in rather
than this “comparable peer” nonsense, because if they are going to align their
perks and remunerations, they should also
align the quality of their product(s).
The reason why this so called
“Zimbabwean product” remains more expensive than the foreign product that has crossed oceans and paid all sorts
of taxes and duties and yet remain of superior quality is that, in that
“proudly zimbabwean” packet of chips consumers
are paying for countless Mercs, Cherokees, Landcruisers and $1m/year packages.
Let us not breed a culture of entitlement. Manufacturers fight for your space, and consumers
will only support when they see you have
a plan. There is a culture that the average Zim proprietor will take the
last dollar needed to restock the business and refuel his car and expect a
government bail-out of some sort.
You just need to take a look at
these “proudly Zimbabwean” companies’
car parks to give you an idea. The car
park is worth the 5 year annual turnover of the company, raised through expensive debt. Schweppes’ Mazoe has
never needed a “buy Zimbabwe” campaign! Why? Because it is of the best quality! It says Buy
Zimbabwe when you drink it! Not when you say it. Simple as that and its even
priced at a premium.
There were countless opportunities
to replace and re-equip local factories with more modern equipment. Most of
these local companies are labouring in debt that was accumulated in the US
dollar era, and there is not a single sign of investment to justify that debt.
Ask any credit officer in your
average bank the major cause of default in corporate debt in Zim: Misappropriation
of funds!
Consumers will not endorse greed
and inefficiency. Being proudly Zimbabwean starts from a leader’s attitude
towards their own business! Bullish Thoughts found out that most consumers appreciate
the need to save jobs, but they will not do it by buying poor quality chips.
Companies should streamline, go
efficient, and become competitive! And yes, it’s not sacriledge, it is done all
over the world: companies retrench! They
buckle up! The business stays alive. This
is not rocket science! This is economics. In the short term it will be
painful, it will look ruthless but there will be many more downstream
opportunities that will employ more than double the people initially retrenched
in the first place.
You are not doing the deer any
favours by rescuing it from a somewhat ruthless kill by the lion, in fact in
the long run you are destroying the ecosystem and the balance of economics. You
may as well go Communist!
Alternative
economic path…
Consumers
can only buy Zimbabwe if the products are available at a reasonable price. Try looking for Charhon biscuits, Thingz,
Cheezits, geisha, and you get the idea. The
bulk of these products are out of sync with their comparables both in terms of
quality & price. Only few corporates like Delta, staying the course.
Many
would never buy imported beef or chicken so that poultry industry for example
needs to be supported and it already has a competitive advantage that needs to
be managed cost wise.
There
is no conspiracy theory on behalf of the population to snub local products.
Perhaps
there is need to concentrate on areas where Zimbabwe has a competitive
advantage which is probably the service industry: education tourism, medical tourism, Art, work towards being the finance hub of
Africa and so on. That cashflow will
assist the rest of the economy to get its act together once all the other usual
requirements like rule of law, property rights, reduced corruption, liquidity
(added by reduced country risk perceived or real) are in place.
It
is good that we encourage the buy Zimbabwe campaign, but we need to look at
what is making our products more expensive than the foreign products.
Put on the table with a $200.00 dollar salary will
people go for expensive local products or cheap foreign products
what makes one to sail through the month will prevail lets resolve the
problem from the root not the symptoms, companies need to work on
cutting inefficiencies that are increasing cost, e.g., corrupt buyers, poor
production methods etc.
Consumers do not want to postulate a
perpetuation of the daylight robbery they face on a daily basis. Consumers
would rather ask fellow countrymen and women to modernise their plants so they
are efficient, ask them to subscribe to a defined competitive price regime
before shutting the borders to imports.
You see, the inefficient
butter producer will have to use more water, more salaries and even more fuel
and electricity that Zimbabwe imports -chances are, consumers will still pay
more to foreigners either through the border or via Zesa, Zimoco, car sales etc
that will come knocking because of the rising inefficient output.
Bulls n Bears values your feedback as we seek to make 2013 a year of change for Zimbabwean products.
Buy Wisely!
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