Hazardous products flood Zim

OVER 182 million products imported into the country in 2016 have been marked as potentially hazardous as foreign suppliers provided sub-standard goods to Zimbabwe.

The Industry and Commerce Ministry appointed Francebased standards firm Bureau Veritas to assess the quality of goods imported into the country.

Their assessment condemned 182 million products, particularly tyres, brake pads and air filters.

Government embarked on a Consignment Based Conformity Assessment programme in 2015 to reduce importation of hazardous and sub-standard products into the country.

The CBCA programme is governed by Statutory Instrument 132 of 2015 and only allows conforming products to be imported into the country.

Some of the goods under the CBCA include food, agricultural inputs, building materials, fuels, packaging material, electrical products, body care, automotive parts, clothing and toys.

Bureau Veritas Zimbabwe and Botswana contracts manager Mr Tendai Malunga said, “More than 182 million products have been identified as potentially hazardous in 2016 and these have been reflected by Bureau Veritas.

“Before the implementation of the CBCA programme, conformity of goods was widely ignored and more than 50 percent of the goods exported to Zimbabwe had an unknown level of conformity.”

Commerce Minister Dr Mike Bimha said it was critical to conform to international standards.

“We embarked on the CBCA programme because sub-standard, unsafe and hazardous products were being imported. Every country has a responsibility to make sure products which get into the country meet the required standard and the CBCA programme is to ensure that good coming into the country conform to our standards and World Trade Organisation standards.

“In the past we never used to check the quality of imported but now the story has changed; everything coming into Zimbabwe is checked,” Dr Bimha said.

Government recently banned importation of meat and related products from Brazil following that country’s investigations into rotten meat exports.

According to the Industry and Commerce Ministry, 6 004 CBCA certificates were issued last year for chemical products, machinery, electrical and food products and 75 percent of these were from South Africa followed by China.

Bureau Veritas, which specialises in testing, inspection and certification services, has issued 22 000 certificates in the past two years with over 1 800 importers having goods verified under the CBCA programme in 2016.