Zimbabwe now imports water says Minister

Industry and Commerce minister Mike Bimha has said Zimbabwe is now importing water and toothpicks.

"How can we, as a nation import water, toothpicks, plastics to mention but a few? Surely, we can do better than this," Bimha on Friday told a meeting of retailers and wholesalers.

Bimha said his ministry had toured different retail and wholesale outlets to observe the percentage of shelve space occupied by local products as compared to imports.

The tour showed that the average space allocated to local products in wholesale shops was 70% and 49% in retail shops.

"In our visits around we found that there were differences. In some wholesalers or supermarkets there is more of imports than locally-produced goods, you go to the next one and it is the opposite you find more of local products than imports," Bimha said.

 "The issue is why and that is because it is a management decision that is made so the issue of imports or not is a question of management."

 "We have set up a committee that comprises of ministry officials and representatives of the private sector which will be evaluating applications for imports before recommending the same to us for approval," Bimha said.