Musa Makina
THE surge of foreign-owned grain milling enterprises, especially those run by Pakistani nationals, is putting immense pressure on local millers in the southern region, according to the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ).
At a regional stakeholder meeting held yesterday in Bulawayo, Mthokozizi Sibanda, the vice-chair for GMAZ’s southern region, expressed concern over the influx of foreign competitors entering the market with cheaper machinery and offering products at prices local millers struggle to match.
“The challenge that we have got is about foreigners, that’s our challenge they are coming in with cheap equipment and cheap products. Their prices are very low.
“Even if we try and go as low as possible, they always go lower than us, in the process they push our millers out of business as consumers will go for the cheaper one. On the other hand it’s unfortunate that we can’t lower our prices to an extent of eating our production costs,” Sibanda explained.
He revealed that more than 20 small-scale millers in the southern region, who once showed promising growth, are now finding it difficult to sustain their production and sales because of the stiff competition from these foreign operators.
“We started off well in the past few years until we saw the influx of these foreign owned millers. Now the production is low, the sales are low, it’s not looking good for many of our colleagues. We are literally being pushed out of business,” Sibanda said.
Highlighting the scale of the issue, he noted, “In the Southern region we have about four foreign owned millers mostly by the Pakistans, they might be few but they are big. It’s a serious cause for concern on our side as millers.”
Sibanda called on the government to reinvigorate efforts to protect the grain milling industry from foreign dominance.
“At one time government spoke about indigenisation and having milling as a reserved sector, but I am not sure how far they have gone.
“I think it’s high time we need to push more on that issue of having the milling sector exclusively reserved for locals because we now have got so many foreigners coming in, opening their milling companies. That is affecting our operations.”
