GAMUCHIRAI TSOKOTA
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has availed letters of credit worth $6 million to oil expressers for the importation of raw materials as it moves to avert a cooking oil shortage.
The industry requires $20 million monthly. Speaking to Business Times, Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe chairman Busisa Moyo, bemoaned that they only managed to get 30 percent of their monthly requirements from RBZ through the Afreximbank letters of credit which are monitored by the former.
The 30 percent which was offered will not lead to the production of enough cooking oil and other products such as soap and butter.“We only received $6 million out of the $20 million monthly requirements of oil expressers” he said.
“ We have been promised to get the same amount in February, however, given these shortages we are likely going to have serious cooking oil and soap shortages as two of our members have already closed”. Zimbabwe requires $3 million per week to meet the weekly demand of two million litres of cooking oil.
Oil expressers have managed to produce one million litres weekly due to a shortage of raw materials. Intervention by the RBZ came as a response to the plea which was made by the OEAZ.
The plea read, “We are down to a one-to-two weeks supply for cooking oil, soap and one week for soya meal on average.
The situation remains critical as eggs, chicken and pork availability will be negatively affected as these depend on soya meal as the base protein source.
Day old chicks and other meat sources will also suffer,” Moyo said.
Oil expressers Surface Wilmar and Olivine have suspended operations as they cannot import critical raw materials.
Turmoil continues to hit the oil industry as government has also failed to
mobilise the promised $200 million to grow soya bean under the Command Agriculture programme.
Owing to the shortages in raw materials soya bean, cotton and sunflower the cooking oil manufacturers will be forced to import raw materials and semi crude oil.
This further worsens the situation considering there already is a foreign currency crunch. Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries president Sifelani Jabangwe said the 30 percent allocation was the average that the oil expressers were getting last year.
“We are likely to be having just barely enough, shortages will be averted by the direct imports since the Statutory Instrument 122 was suspended and we will also continue to lobby for more allocations to the oil expressers” he said.
“Unfortunately what we are getting now is a blend of local supplies and imports.
That is why we need a way to harness this foreign currency which is being used to import finished product and use it for local production”.
