bottled water restrictions
Challenges still linger in the bottled water industry, despite government seeing positives on the horizon following a statutory instrument introduced last year to restrict bottled water imports. Bogolo Kenewendo, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry told Business Trends that there are a few sticking challenges. Some of the challenges include shortage of spring and sparkling water, as the country has two producers, one for each type respectively.“There is only one producer for spring water being capacitated by some of the retailers and because they have shown commitment to upping the standards of the local producer, we are giving them import permits for spring water, in the meantime,” said Kenewendo. On sparkling water, Kenewendo conceded that the local producer is overwhelmed by demand.“We have taken that kind of feed back into note, and are reviewing the instrument to say how best we serve the production side and still ensure that the demand side is served as well,” said Kenewendo. She said government is conscious not to implement a policy at the detriment of the consumer.“We need to find a balance between the producer and the consumer,” said Kenewendo. Meanwhile, the minister said the implementation of the statutory instrument is going well.“There are a lot of new entrants that come with the rise of the instrument and in the beginning, we had a few issues with listing and quality but we are guaranteed that now the retailers have come on board and are buying local,” said Kenewendo, adding that retailers are urged to support local products and manufacturers that meet the standards. “I do not know any retailer that would put their integrity on line to sell water they cannot vouch for its quality,” emphasized the minister. Last year, when the bottled water statutory instrument was implemented, over 20 companies were registered in the sector. Import figures from Statistics Botswana indicate that in 2016 a total of 2,291, 439 litres were imported into the country at the value of P23, 406,475.