Addressing Consumer Rights and Concerns in the Poultry Industry

1. ADDRESSING CONSUMER RIGHTS AND CONCERNS IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRYA PAPER RESENTED BY MS ROSEMARY SIYACHITEMA, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CONSUMER COUNCIL OF ZIMBABWE TO THE INAUGURAL CONFERENCE ON MANAGING THE VALUE CHAIN FOR THE SMALL SCALE POULTRY PRODUCER 21 NOVEMBER 2012 CELEBRATION CENTRE, BORROWDALE, HARARE

2. THE CONSUMER COUNCIL: CONSUMER RIGHTS AND THEIR ORIGINS • The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) is a private voluntary organization affiliated to the government through the Ministry of Industry and International Trade. The CCZ is a membership based organisation, whose membership extends from the vitally important grassroots to influential bodies. It relies mainly on the government grant for survival. • It is the only truly consumer representative body, which strives to build consumers’ awareness of their rights, responsibilities and bargaining power, through education, information, advocacy and protection. • The CCZ like any consumer organization anywhere in the world owes its origins to the former United States of America President, John. F Kennedy, who in 1962 pronounced a Consumer Bill of Rights. Originally, the rights were only four but were expanded to eight universal consumer rights approved by the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection in 1985.

3. CONSUMER RIGHTS • The announcement and adoption of consumer rights in the early 1960s in the USA was a significant development in the history of consumer movements in all countries. It is these rights that shape the work and mandate of the CCZ. • Among the basic consumer rights pronounced below, the ones marked bold are particularly relevant to the topic of food we discussing today: • The right to BASIC NEEDS and guarantee of survival. • The right to SAFETY: Consumers must be protected against products, processes, and services that are hazardous to health. • The right to be INFORMED OR TO INFORMATION: Consumers must be given facts necessary to make an informed choice, and be protected against lack of information and dishonest or misleading information. The absence of appropriate labelling on products clearly infringes on this right.

4. CONSUMER RIGHTS • The right to CHOOSE: Consumers must be able to select freely from a range of products and services according to their preference and beliefs. • The right to REPRESENTATION – which includes the right to express consumer interests with a view to receiving full consideration in the formulation and execution of government policies. • The right to REDRESS which includes the right to be compensated for unsatisfactory goods and services. • The right to CONSUMER EDUCATION. This is the right to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be an informed consumer. • The right to a HEALTHY and SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT: This right is a growing concern amongst consumers. The well being of present and future generations and their access to an environment that is neither threatening or dangerous and promotes a life of well-being is at the core of this right.

5. CONSUMER RESPONSIBILITIES • In addition to rights are 10 R’s of consumer responsibilities, these are: • Read; • React; • Record; • Rectify; • Review; • Reconsider; • Rely; • Resolve; • Resist; • Relay

6. WHAT ARE SOME THE CONCERNS IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY IN ZIMBABWE ? • Food has always been a key issue for consumers and they are big concerns now on: • Influx of cheaply, unfairly priced and poor quality imported chicken (Chicken that shrinks in size when you cook it). • Chicken contraband including “offals”. Official statistics indicate that Zimbabwe is spending no less than $65 million to import chicken offal's i.e. gizzards, livers, feet, necks etcera at the expense of locally produced chicken. • As a result of the imported chicken, local chicken has become “overpriced” and therefore expensive to the majority of ordinary consumers who now resort to buying the cheap imported chicken. • This is despite surveys done by both the CCZ and Buy Zimbabwe Campaign which indicate that local consumers prefer local brands to foreign and imported brands.

7. CONSUMER CONCERNS CONTINUED • Other problems include lack of labelling or poorly labelled and underweighted products. Supermarkets and or retailers are selling unmarked or unlabelled chicken in contravention of labelling regulations. The supermarkets buy imported chicken, unpack it, put in trays and sell it without labels which indicate the origins of the chicken, best before dates and other ancillary labels like properties used e.t.c • I am sure most of you have bought imported chicken and found out that it shrinks when you cook it. This is because the chicken is injected with brine - unknown quantities of salt water and when you buy it, you part-pay for ice instead of chicken. • There are also complaints about chicken feed, which is presumably biotechnology enabled. There are fears pertaining to the safeness of the feed which we hear makes the chicken grow fast and fatty, exposing consumers to serious health complications.

8. ADDRESSING CONSUMER RIGHTS AND CONCERNS • It is an undeniable right of any consumer to have access to all the rights as mentioned before, but these rights will not be realised if consumers do not play their part and that is to REPORT to responsible authorities so that where consumer rights violations are taking place, corrective action is immediately taken. • It is the collective effort of government, consumer organisations, regulators and consumers to make sure that unsafe, overpriced and products that do not conform to expected standards are removed from retail shelves. • Poor enforcement of regulations and an irresponsible marketplace burdens consumers with a “buyer beware” principle regarding the purchase of these products. As consumers, we therefore have a moral responsibility to be more vigilant what about we buy – by reading product labels more carefully, by choosing those brands that comply with labelling laws and by turning our backs on non-compliant products.

9. ADDRESSING CONSUMER RIGHTS AND CONCERNS • The selling of unlabelled products is also an unfair business practices that denies consumers their right to fair value. • Studies done in South Africa on brined chicken showed that consumers were being overcharged by the companies that sold this type of chicken by as much as 20 percent as they paid for added water instead of chicken. This impacted adversely on low-income consumers as chicken is the most affordable meat. • The issue of salt in chicken is also a huge consumer issue which affected national efforts for consumers staying health, as it spawned non-communicable diseases i.e of high blood pressure. • Consumers must make their voices heard in these matters and the private sector needs to play its part by being responsible and observing the law regarding consumer products. • National efforts are required to improve the quality of affordable foodstuffs and to promote consumption of local products.

10. ADDRESSING CONSUMER RIGHTS AND CONCERNS • The CCZ exists for consumers, lets use it. Although, we do not at the moment have the power to fine or take punitive or draconian action against those found violating consumer rights – this is being worked on and should fully be addressed when we have a comprehensive Consumer Protective Act. However, the CCZ works well with government and regulatory agencies to ensure enforcement and compliance to consumer protection laws. • Our greatest strength lies in educating consumers to know that they have rights and responsibilities which they must exercise. • As a consumer we have a responsibility to READbefore purchasing anything; • REACT, if you do not like what you have purchased; • RECTIFY – correct errors or anything strange timeously; • REVIEW - check quotations and prices before accepting the; one in front of you. • RELY - consumers have a right to complain to relevant authorities; • RESOLVE – it is your responsibility to resolve your consumer rights issue directly with the supplier of service; • RESIST – Beware of the impact of your consumer behaviour e.g buying an overpriced, poor quality or an expired product, and • RELAY- tell others about what you know or have learnt about consumer rights and responsibilities.

11. THE END • THANK YOU • SIYABONGA • TATENDA