The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is considering plans to stop allocating foreign currency to cooking oil producers. The RBZ wants the producers to acquire raw materials locally as the country is currently battling foreign currency shortages. Mangudya was peeved that some of the cooking oil producers were increasing prices. Said Mangudya:
We have distributed foreign exchange from our major five products to cooking oil.
By the way, cooking oil producers now need to wake up and smell the coffee; they can’t continue importing crude oil, this is September. They need to put their act in order.
Produce soya beans in Zimbabwe; convert it into cooking oil, stock feed and export. We import crude oil.
They now need to wake up. They have enjoyed Zimbabwean foreign exchange and yet they don’t produce.
…Now some people in the cooking oil industry increase the price for cooking oil yet they are getting foreign currency at the official exchange rate. They are pricing their products using the price of the parallel market, where they never go.
More: The Standard