Source: Horticulture exporters cry foul | The Financial Gazette February 16, 2018

By Zebb Chakawa

LOCAL horticulture exporters have engaged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) over payment of freight charges on the back of challenges with international airlines, it has emerged.

Fresh vegetable exporter, Pro Best Veg marketing executive, Tatenda Mukazi, told The Financial Gazette that most local exporters were being short-changed by international airlines that are being receipted by clients outside the country due to Zimbabwe’s acute foreign exchange shortages.
Independent data shows that exporting fresh vegetable producers paid an estimated US$92 million in freight charges in 2017 alone.
The farmers believe that they are receiving the short-end of the stick and are lobbying the central bank to negotiate with airlines so that they can be paid locally.

“What happens is when we sell to markets, they are the ones paying international airlines outside the country. When we send our produce into the market, they have a contract with the airline. So what then happens is that when they pay me they deduct the net and pay the airline.
“What that essentially means is that markets are the ones now paying for freight in foreign exchange,” Mukazi said on the sidelines of a ZimTrade-RBZ meeting in the capital on Monday.

He added that regional counterparts were paying airlines in their local currencies.
“This has not always been the case; it started when the bond notes were introduced. However, it short-changes the local producer here so that is the main bone of contention. It discourages local producers. The ideal situation would be for us to pay the airlines locally,” he said.

While senior RBZ official, Ernest Matiza, invited the farmers to engage the central bank for a solution, involved parties may hit a deadlock as airlines tightened payment terms in November last year.

At least four major airlines operating in Zimbabwe tightened payment terms, demanding payments in hard currency and foreign credit cards only towards the end of 2017.
As at November 7, 2017 international airlines operating in the country had about US$50 million trapped in Zimbabwe in the wake of intensifying foreign exchange shortages.
Travelling abroad from Zimbabwe by air is increasingly getting tougher as airlines refuse to accept the local bond notes, electronic transfers and the real time gross settlement system.