Why Zim products are more expensive than regional imports

A lot has been said on Zimbabwe products price competitiveness. Why are Zim products more expensive compared to regional imports? Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Zim producers are using old plant and machinery which is expensive to run.
2. Zim producers are using old technology to produce. The problem with old technology is that it requires constant intervention, is labour intensive, consumes more power, etc.
3 . Local market is small and therefore Zim producers lack the economies of scale.
4. High utilities costs, water, power (in fact running on generators which is expensive).
5. High interest rates (suffice to leave it at that).
6. Importation of inputs as upstream industries are non existent (Agro-industries for example should feed from a strong agriculture sector).
7. Poor management (you will be surprised it accounts for a large portion).
8. High labour costs arising from failure to respond to changing environment.
9. Low labour productivity - no investment in training.
10. Unnecessarily high margins.
11. Being jack of all trades and master of non - Zim must revisit its national comparative advantage and focus on those areas. Vehicle assembly I'm sure is not one of them.

The list can go on and on! You can add high logistics, corruption, etc, etc.

This is why foreign investors want to only invest in certain operating environments and unfortunately Zim environment is not one of them. So the first thing we must get right is the macroeconomic environment. Leadership, in short.

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