Source: Horticulture exporters cry foul | The Financial Gazette February 16, 2018
Horticulture exporters are crying foul
LOCAL horticulture exporters have engaged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) over payment of freight charges on the back of challenges with international airlines, it has emerged.
Fresh vegetable exporter, Pro Best Veg marketing executive, Tatenda Mukazi, told The Financial Gazette that most local exporters were being short-changed by international airlines that are being receipted by clients outside the country due to Zimbabwe’s acute foreign exchange shortages.
Independent data shows that exporting fresh vegetable producers paid an estimated US$92 million in freight charges in 2017 alone.
The farmers believe that they are receiving the short-end of the stick and are lobbying the central bank to negotiate with airlines so that they can be paid locally.
“What happens is when we sell to markets, they are the ones paying international airlines outside the country. When we send our produce into the market, they have a contract with the airline. So what then happens is that when they pay me they deduct the net and pay the airline.
“What that essentially means is that markets are the ones now paying for freight in foreign exchange,” Mukazi said on the sidelines of a ZimTrade-RBZ meeting in the capital on Monday.
He added that regional counterparts were paying airlines in their local currencies.
“This has not always been the case; it started when the bond notes were introduced. However, it short-changes the local producer here so that is the main bone of contention. It discourages local producers. The ideal situation would be for us to pay the airlines locally,” he said.
While senior RBZ official, Ernest Matiza, invited the farmers to engage the central bank for a solution, involved parties may hit a deadlock as airlines tightened payment terms in November last year.
At least four major airlines operating in Zimbabwe tightened payment terms, demanding payments in hard currency and foreign credit cards only towards the end of 2017.
As at November 7, 2017 international airlines operating in the country had about US$50 million trapped in Zimbabwe in the wake of intensifying foreign exchange shortages.
Travelling abroad from Zimbabwe by air is increasingly getting tougher as airlines refuse to accept the local bond notes, electronic transfers and the real time gross settlement system.
COMMENTS
Do you think growing a tomato near Harare that is exported to Europe must go free on the plane ? – Zimbabwean businessmen must wake up to the simple rules of business. You have costs and sales – they must be properly balanced for you to make a profit.
Failing to make a profit sends you to kumusha to become a subsistence farmer once again – stop crying comrades. You have the land now show us how clever you are !
Exactly Ace. Do they think the previous farmer growing export quality fruit and veg, got free ANYTHING.? I can’t believe that all these years down the line starting when going concerns were taken by the so called new farmers, that they still haven’t grasped the business side of farming. Do they honestly think that we all waved a magic wand and got rich?
Yes Doris that is what they think. They also think that Murungu go to the bank and ‘Juuust tek the mani’ The fact that the Murungu put the money there in the first place does not occur to them. They think there is a magic fountain in the bank’s basement that rains money for the exclusive use of Murungu.
Simple solution design and manufacture your own low cost aircraft then you won’t be reliant on international airlines. If you can get diesel from rocks surely you can fly your own product to the moon and do away with these pesky internationals.
We need to be fair these new farmers have the money to pay. They want to pay using local Zimbabwean bond.The fact that they are exporting shows there are good farmers. There are not asking anything for free
Ha ha ha. Chema chema. Destroying the farms destroyed not only the economy but also the forex generation base. My farm was taken with US$700 000 of standing crop and not a single stem was sold after l left.
Forget all the crying and your irrelevent 99yr leases. Accept the mistake and give the land back to Zimbabwean farmers and in no time we will have our economy back, the jobs jobs jobs promised by ED, and our own stable currency which will do away with problems such as “our comrade” is crying about. There again he is now the shefu on looted property so he is not wanting to give that up.
No point in reclaiming one farm, with no trees and contour ridges the soil emigrated to Mozambique.