In our recent price survey, we got the shock of our lives when we got into FoodWorld, Harare’s most stocked shop chain, and saw the standard 2-litre bottle of cooking oil going for a whopping $108.99 ZWL. That initial shock turned into realisation and acceptance once we visited the other three shops:

In Pick N Pay the same bottle was going for $109.99
And in Choppies it was going for $ 105.90
There was no cooking oil in OK branches that we visited but the price would be not materially different from what those other three are charging.

Just like with sugar blame the crazy rate

During the same survey, we saw that the price of sugar had gone up by a massive 51% and quick math showed that the cost of sugar was still $1.60 (USD) what had only changed was the price. It’s the same case here. A bottle of cooking oil goes for between US$2.50 and US$3.00 on the so-called informal market where USD is accepted.

The rate is between $41-44 ZWL depending on who you ask, let us pick the least rate of $41 ZWL per USD in our example. This means that cooking oil in FoodWorld will be going for:

108.99/41

$2.66 USD.

That’s very much on par with what they are charging on the black market at the moment.