Supermarkets to be blacklisted over cooking oil

The Chief Executive Officer of United Refineries Busisa Moyo has revealed that they will be blacklisting retailers who are buying cooking oil in bulk from them and hoarding it instead of selling it to the public thereby creating artificial shortage of the liquid in Bulawayo.

Said Moyo, "United Refineries Limited  sold and delivered over 300mt (150,000 units) of cooking oil  last week into the Bulawayo and surrounding markets. We are concerned that the product is being withheld or bundled at till point. We will be blacklisting errant retailers for the next round of deliveries."

Moyo's statement were welcomed by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting who described the move as productive.

"This behaviour of causing artificial shortages by errant retailers is counterproductive and regressive. The productive move by United Refineries Limited is great. No to economic saboteurs." The Ministry said in a statement.

This comes as Zimbabwe is experiencing inadequate supplies of cooking oil and price hikes because of inadequate foreign currency allocations to the oil industry by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

According to the Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe (OEAZ) — a cooking oil industry lobby group which is made up of seven members that supply at least 95 percent of the edible oils consumed in Zimbabwe — its members require at least $5 million per week or $20 million per month to import soya beans, crude edible oils and other raw materials to satisfy the requirements for national oil demand and related products adequately.

OEAZ members have been receiving $2,2 million per week or $8,8 million per month, a 66 percent deficit on the national demand.