Cooking oil brand, Kukoma, has been conspicuously missing on the local market for the past few weeks raising eyebrows among consumers.
Kukoma has disappeared from shop shelves along with Golden K, both brands are manufactured by Capital Oil Refineries (Cori).
A snap survey conducted by Business Times found that the two products have been out of stock for close to a week now.
The development has not been taken well by consumers who say the absence has forced them to use foreign products, which are sometimes more expensive.
A trader from Mulanje, Isaac Mendulo, said the absence of Kukoma has affected his business. “Kukoma is currently a leading cooking oil brand.
In the absence of Kukoma, customers are going for foreign cooking oils. To me as a business person, I feel, in a way this is not only affecting the consumers per se, but also the Buy Malawi Strategy, which the government had put in place,” said Isaac Mendulo.
One of Cori’s management officials who did not want to be named said the company faced a minor technical hitch in Beira which affected supply.
The official said the situation is expected to normalise within the week. But Consumer Activist, John Kapito, has blamed the situation on failure by manufacturers to understand consumer behaviour and accurately predict demand.
“There are a number of products that are missing on the market and producers should be able to understand the consumer behaviour which looks at consistency, availability, quality and price. So in a case where a product which consumers like to buy goes missing and the consumer switches to another product, it becomes difficult to get them back,” he said.
He further said this is one of the tests of the Buy Malawi Strategy.
“If not treated carefully, the campaign is likely to fail, but we urge Malawians to buy local products. By doing so, it means jobs will be created locally and disposable income will also increase,” Kapito said.
Leave a Reply