Omega Ukama 
The cooking oil industry’s imports are not limited to crude soya bean oil as players have also been importing soya bean meal.
ZIMBABWE’s cooking oil raw material imports spiked to a 17-month high of $16 million in July, latest trade data shows.
Crude soya bean oil, a critical ingredient in making cooking oil, is one of the country’s five major imports. Between January and November last year, the country imported $102 million worth of the product.
Latest data released by the Zimbabwe statistics agency, Zimstat, shows that the country imported $16 million worth of raw materials, representing a 60 percent increase $10,3 million in June.
Average monthly imports of the product since January 2017 cost $9,6 million.
Importation of the product has continued to rise despite efforts by the Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe (OEAZ) to cut the import bill through import substitution. Average monthly imports of the product between February and July this year were $11,9 million while the average monthly imports in 2017 were $9,3 million.
The cooking oil industry’s imports are not limited to crude soya bean oil as players have also been importing soya bean meal.
“We are importing crude oil and meal as well because we don’t have enough beans. We now want to agree that we will import beans instead of finished products, which will lower the import figures. This will only start from July as the local crop will cover us for only three months up to June.
“Apparently, our imports are in excess of $300 million and we need to bring this down by 20 or 30 percent by bringing in beans but then again it depends on prices,” OEAZ chairman Busisa Moyo said recently.
Government has also made efforts towards import substitution. Last year, it announced it was moving to eliminate importation of soya beans through the Command Soya Bean Scheme introduced in the 2017/2018 farming season.
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