The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) says shop owners cannot be expected to sell their products in Zimbabwe dollars when they source the same products from manufacturers in foreign currency.
This follows reports that some wholesalers and retailers in Bulawayo and Harare are charging some basic grocery items strictly in foreign currency and refusing to take local currency.
The development is forcing consumers to go to the black market to secure foreign currency.
Speaking to The Sunday News, CZR president Denford Mutashu said the pricing of goods is determined by the currency that wholesalers and retailers use to source products from manufacturers. Said Mutashu:
We are in a multi-currency system and both the ZWL$ and the USD are official legal tender.
Retailers and wholesalers price goods and services according to the currency they use to source products from manufacturers.
Very few manufacturers and suppliers can release goods in local currency as a way of using their product to source forex and augment that which they get from the auction, which constitutes an average of 20 per cent to 40 per cent of their total requirement.
Instead of buying forex from the parallel market, businesses are using their products to source forex as a survival means.