ZAMBIA NOW DUMPING SITE FOR CHEAP IMPORTS
ZAMBIA has become a dumping site for substandard foreign products because of people’s huge appetite for cheap commodities, 3rd Liberation Movement (3rd LM) president Enoch Tonga has observed.
Mr Tonga said that the large appetite for cheap commodities had led to the country being turned into a dumping site for products of very poor quality.
He said in an interview with the Daily Nation that shelves in Zambia were fronted with substandard products at the expense of genuine local products.
Mr Tonga reiterated that in as much as local products and other genuine commodities were seen to be expensive, they were of a high quality and economical.
He explained that cheap products usually do not last long and that people were expected to spend even more because of repeated buying.
Mr Tonga noted that it was better to spend a little more on a product that would last long than spending little on a commodity that lasted shorter than the blink of an eye.
“If you go in shops across the country, all the shelves are filled with substandard products. It’s because these traders know that Zambians like cheap products. We don’t realise that the same products are not economical. You buy today and tomorrow you have to buy the same product again. Cheap is expensive,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Tonga explained that Zambian businesses were not flourishing because they lacked the necessary support.
He observed that the cost of production was too high hence the commodities being expensive on the market compared to others.
Mr Tonga advised Government to provide incentives to local manufacturers so that their products were competitive locally and internationally.
And Mr Tonga also called on Zambia Bureau of Standards to intensify efforts of ensuring that the country was not flooded with substandard products.