Zimbabwe shippers abandon official forex rate

Martin Rushmere Shippers and clearing agents in Zimbabwe have been forced to rethink their billing, accounting and administration because of the desperate hard currency situation. Some have abandoned the official exchange rate of Z$50 to US$1 and are calculating their charges on the parallel exchange rate of 110 to 120 to the U.S.$. Says Rhett Hill of the Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe: "The shippers have to find the currency on the parallel market and obviously have to pass on that rate. Customers understand the problems." Shifted burden Some shippers have shifted the burden of bills of lading over to the customers and are dispatching goods only when the foreign currency has been secured. In some cases there has been no change. Says Dave Sly of Unifeeder: "There are a number of shipping lines like ourselves who have always charged in U.S. dollars, and while these have become scarcer for our customers, our billing and payment system is the same." Meanwhile, Mozambique shows no sign of withdrawing the requirement for Zimbabwean traders to pay in hard currency. Hill recently met Rui Fonseca of CFM over the matter and says: "Their attitude is perfectly understandable. They have millions of Zimbabwe dollars which they cannot remit and it is naturally affecting them. As things stand, relief will only come when Zimbabwe has more currency available."