Consumer Council: Law Banning Food Imports Forcing Prices To Go Up
President of the International Crossborders Association, Dennis Juru, told Studio 7 that they had suspended their campaign because people can now bring into the country any number of items from outside the country.
WASHINGTON DC — The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says some prices of basic commodities have gone up following government’s enforcement of a Statutory Instrument 164 of 2016 that banned the importation of several consumer goods. The introduction of the ban was met with stiff resistance from individuals and organizations who rely on cross-border trade resulting in the government relaxing the law to allow consumers to import a number of goods. The law resulted in some organizations launching a campaign to discourage commercial activity at the country’s borders. However, president of the International Crossborders Association, Dennis Juru, told Studio Seven that they had suspended their campaign because people can now bring into the country any number of items from outside the country. "We are happy that the government listened to the cries of the people. You can now get a few items into the country from outside, especially groceries," said Juru. Regional spokesman of the Consumer Council for Matabeleland, Comfort Muchekeza, told Studio 7 that the consumer food basket has gone up by 0.09 bringing it up to $567.00 "The main reason (for the increase) was the government gazetted statutory instrument 64," he said. He added that the whole idea of introducing the statutory instrument was good but local producers raised their prices because they did not have any competition. Muchekeza said despite the increases there was a slight drop in the prices of few goods, especially cooking oil.