Almot Maqolo, Staff Writer 
THE Zimbabwe sugar industry is facing stiff competition from cheap imports following authorities’ measures to allow duty-free imports under Statutory 80 of 2023. As a result, companies have been exporting excess stocks. Our Staff Writer, Almot Maqolo, caught up with Hippo Valley chief executive Aiden Mhere to get insights into the company’s operations. Below are excerpts from the interview:
Q: How has informalisation impacted your businesses?
A: First and foremost, informal traders, if they are not registered with the government, don’t have costs. So as a consequence, they may sell at prices that are not really what we expect in a formal retail chain like OK Zimbabwe and Pick n Pay and undercut. So the government loses revenue in that way and it also undermines the orderliness of doing business. There are also health issues.
We have to make sure that everybody associated with our product is selling and distributing it in a proper manner. That’s a key issue for us. In South Africa, for example, we note that they have what they call spaza shops and they are registered, or it could be informal, but still registered and subjected to regular checks just to make sure that they are doing the right thing.
The other issue obviously is around currency manipulation. Sugar and fuel are commodities that behave like foreign currency; people use them for arbitrage rather than for normal consumption.
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