Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) Deputy Executive Director Rosemary Mpofu has said that Zimbabwean consumers prefer locally made products rather than imports during a Trade Tariffs Workshop in Harare today.
The CCZ Director said this is because if local consumers have problems with particular products, they are more likely to get their consumer rights to regress, during a workshop organised by the Competition and Tariff Commision (CTC).
“We always talk about consumer welfare, let’s grow the local industry, let’s grow local business,” Mpofu said. “True, local production is very key to the consumer and I must say that in our numerous interactions with various stakeholders and we have discovered as the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe that Zimbabweans actually prefer consuming locally made food, locally made products.”
“It’s much more difficult to deal with a complaint that is of an international nature than it is to resolve a complaint that is emanating from local products.”
Besides getting consumer rights to regress, CCZ Director also said consumers are also looking at the health and safety issues.
Things consumers have to look for include the way products are inspected, the way they are labelled and if expiry dates are being taken care of.
“For some reason, we have discovered that Zimbabwe has very well crafted regulations, laws that protect the health and safety of its consumers,” Mpofu said. “We find they are more, they are much more stringent than the laws that we find elsewhere.”
Food Standard Act and the Public Health Act are some of the legislatures that protect consumers from buying unhealthy food staffs.
Although Mpofu said Zimbabweans prefer locally produced products, consumers have been complaining of the pricing of goods in Zimbabwe.
The southern African country has one of the most expensive prices in the region.
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