19 December 2007
Maputo — The Maputo City Director of Industry and Trade, Armindo Barradas, has admitted that, despite all efforts to inspects and control sales outlets, it is still difficult to guarantee the quality of produce imported for the Mozambican market.
"It's difficult to guarantee 100 per cent the quality of goods, despite all attempts to inspect the quality and validity of these goods, even after they have been cleared through customs", he said.
He argued that the lack of a quality certification institute "does not allow us to state that all goods and products are of the desired quality".
Barradas was speaking on Tuesday to television reporters about the current inspection campaign waged in Maputo by joint brigades of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the municipal police, to try and avoid unjustified price hikes, the sale of goods past their expiry date, and other dangers to the public during this year's festive season.
He said the fact that most imports are not labeled in Portuguese makes it difficult for consumers to understand fully what they are buying. But he added "we can't halt the entry of products of medium to good quality just because the labels aren't written in Portuguese. When consumers buy these goods with some regularity, we assume that they are of acceptable quality".
Nonetheless Barradas said a policy was being gradually introduced under which all goods entering Mozambique must be labeled in Portuguese. This is obviously doomed to failure - most food and drink imports are from South Africa, and it is rather unlikely that South African companies will go to the expense of adding labels in Portuguese just for the convenience of Mozambican consumers.
A more serious problem is the existence of goods that bear no labels at all. Barradas said work is under way to ensure compliance with a 2004 ministerial decree which states may only be sold to the public if they are labeled.
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