Zimbabwe’s shops stock up as Harare drops restrictions

THERE are hopeful signs of recovery in Harare, with shops able to restock now that trading in foreign currency is legal and price controls to rein in inflation have been abandoned.

But a spokesperson for Pick n Pay, which owns 25 per cent of Zimbabwean group TM Supermarkets with 54 stores countrywide, said: ‘Although greatly improved from the empty shelves of last year, inventories are still very low, with the supply of goods being mostly inconsistent.’The company said trading conditions in Zimbabwe were still very challenging, as local retailers had great difficulty securing the credit they needed to restock, and ‘with social conditions as they are, consumers are struggling’.Pick n Pay was ‘optimistic, as we always have been’, about a recovery, although experts expected it to be a long and difficult process. The group hoped the country’s retail trade would continue to be resilient.Tommy Edmond, the chief executive of Tourvest, which has investments in tourism facilities in Victoria Falls, said: ‘The situation there is better than it was from the shopping point of view, although the improvement is not yet quite as great as I hear it is in Harare. Tourism numbers are not yet rising, but any improvement is a step forward.’Edmond said Tourvest had no plans at present to extend its investments beyond Victoria Falls, which had operated as though it was a separate enclave, still attracting tourists despite the dire situation in the rest of the country.But when tourist numbers begin to rise, ‘we shall need more infrastructure there’.Glenda Zvenyika, Comair’s communications manager, said flights between Johannesburg and Harare were 80 per cent full, but there had not yet been any upward spike in demand.’We are hoping for encouraging developments that will bring more investment into the country and attract more travel there,’ she said.Rodger Foster, the chief executive of Airlink, which flies to Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, said there had ‘definitely been an uptick in demand for seats and we are getting very good passenger loads. This is particularly the case for Bulawayo, a centre of the mining industry, and forward bookings for there are excellent.’However, Zimbabwe had externalised its economy in recent years, he said, with Zimbabweans working abroad and bringing money back in.-Business Report