Why Buy Zimbabwe drive is a hard-sell

According to Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Busisa Moyo, the economic collapse has set Zimbabwean industries back some 15 years. Many have since lost market share completely, he says.

“The need to retool is there and most companies were set back during the hyperinflationary era. What is important is to get the market share back and then consider retooling. No industrialist would want to retool and then look for the market,” Moyo was quoted as saying recently.

Zimbabwe has suffered massive decimation of its industry. In 1980, manufacturing accounted for 25 percent of GDP. The figure had stood at 17 percent in 1965, when Rhodesia declared UDI, and was forced to rapidly industrialise to survive sanctions. Between 1980 and 1989, manufacturing averaged 23 percent of GDP, above the 10 percent average in Sub Saharan Africa at the time.

“Apart from its relative size, the manufacturing sector was diversified. On the advent of independence, industry already consisted of some 1 260 separate units producing 7 000 different products,” according to a paper by labour researcher Godfrey Kanyenze.

Much of that industry has since disappeared. A 2014 survey by ZimTrade showed that, in the previous decade, Zimbabwe lost a massive 70 percent of its exporting manufacturers.

Stuck with ancient factories, the industries that remain will struggle to match the standards set by their more modern foreign competitors. The industries that government is trying to protect will continue to struggle to push out products that consumers, with their changing tastes and reduced buying power, want to buy.-The Source

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