Cooking Oil Shortage Looms as Forex Reserves Dwindle

Zimbabweans should brace for another cooking oil shortage as the producers of edible oil struggle to access foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and the interbank market.

Cooking oil producers require foreign currency to import key raw materials.

According to Herald Business cooking oil producers were facing serious challenges getting foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or the recently introduced interbank market.

“There is nothing trading on the interbank market, we are yet to see meaningful activity on that market. There are just small volumes trading, so whatever we are getting there cannot buy anything,”Olivine Industries acting chief executive Sylvester Mangani said

Industry sources said that cooking oil companies were now in a quandary regarding access to the foreign currency they need to import critical raw materials such as soya beans, crude soya bean oil and palm fats.

Reserve Bank Governor Dr John Mangudya poured cold water on the claims by industry players that there was confusion and challenges around access to foreign currency by the cooking oil producers saying the companies know what to do, which they had always done in the past.

“These people know what they must do. They may be misrepresenting facts. Isn’t it that they have been drawing down LCs (Letters of Credit) from Afreximbank, including the fuel importers,” the RBZ chief said, adding that there was no confusion over the issue….source herald