Finding Zimbabwean Food in the UK: Shops, Online Stores and Delivery Services

Sourcing the tastes of home — sadza, maputi, Lobels biscuits, Mazoe, Colcom polony — is far easier in the UK than it was even a decade ago. A combination of dedicated Zimbabwean online retailers, African grocery chains, and South African food shops now means most Zimbabwe-specific products are within reach, whether you are in Birmingham, London, Manchester or further afield. **Online Retailers Specialising in Zimbabwean Products** ZimFoods (zimfoods.co.uk) is one of the most directly Zimbabwe-focused online shops available to UK customers. The site stocks a broad range of familiar brands including Lobels biscuits (Lemon Creams, Custard Creams, Vanilla Creams, Bermuda Creams), Charhons chocolate-coated and loose biscuits, Cerevita in Banana, Choc Malt, and Corn & Wheat varieties, Colcom French Polony, and Family Peanut Butter (dovi). It also carries South African staples commonly used in Zimbabwean households — Knorrox stock cubes, Aromat seasoning, Black Cat peanut butter, All Gold tomato sauce, Joko and Five Roses tea, Rajah curry powder, and Nola mayonnaise. Cerevita is available in wholesale boxes of 24 units for those organising community events or bulk buying with family. The site offers a buy-now-pay-later option and runs regular sale pricing across most lines. The Savanna (thesavanna.co.uk) is primarily a South African food retailer but maintains a dedicated Zimbabwe section. Stock has included Mazoe Cream Soda 2L (£10.49), Maputi salted popcorn 50g (£1.29), Sun Jam, Willards Korn Kurls, Happy Hippo White Maize Kernels 1kg (£5.49), and Zambezi Lager. Availability fluctuates and several lines have shown as out of stock, so it is worth checking the site regularly or using the restock notification function if available. **Birmingham: The UK's Strongest Physical Presence** Birmingham has the densest concentration of African grocery shops in the UK outside London, and the Zimbabwean community is well served. Samis (samisonline.com) operates three stores in the city: - 1063 Pershore Road, B30 2YJ - 285 Birchfield Road, Birmingham B20 3DD - 82–89 Cecil Street, Newtown, B19 3SU Samis markets itself as a one-stop African-Caribbean store and offers online ordering with in-store collection or delivery. The stores stock African staples including maize meal, leafy greens, dried fish, and a range of products familiar to Zimbabwean shoppers. **Nationwide Delivery: 4Way Foods** 4Way Foods (4wayfoods.com) is a British and world foods supermarket offering next-day delivery across a wide network of UK cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Derby, West Bromwich, Leeds, Bradford, Belfast, Sheffield, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Norwich, Kent, Essex, Luton, Oxford, Cambridge, Chester, Lancaster, Cardiff, and Southampton. The site stocks ingredients for Zimbabwean dishes including maize meal, beef and goat meat, and African leafy greens such as covo (collard greens) and muboora (pumpkin leaves). Price ranges for recipe kits run from approximately £0.59 to £4.79 per component. **Sending Groceries Back to Zimbabwe** For those who want to support family in Zimbabwe rather than source food for themselves in the UK, ZimGroceries (zimgroceries.co.uk) operates a delivery service specifically for sending grocery hampers to recipients in Zimbabwe. Customers browse ready-made hampers or build custom orders online, and ZimGroceries arranges delivery within Zimbabwe. Delivery is priced by distance from Harare CBD: up to 10km costs $8 (free on orders over $100), 10–30km costs $10 with a $20 minimum order, and 30–70km costs $13 with a $50 minimum order. The service operates internationally — customers from the UK, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, and the UAE have all used it. Contact is available via WhatsApp on +44 7456 737976. The service reports over 1,000 families supported. **What to Look For in General African Shops** Most African and Caribbean grocery shops across the UK carry products that overlap with Zimbabwean cooking even if they do not label themselves as Zimbabwean-specific. Key items to look for include white maize meal (sold under brands like Iwisa or Roller), dried matemba (kapenta), peanut butter, covo or chomolia greens, dried beans, Aromat seasoning, and stock cubes. Butcheries within African shops in cities like Leicester, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Luton, and parts of London (particularly Peckham, Tottenham, and Woolwich) regularly stock goat, ox tail, tripe, and other cuts common in Zimbabwean cooking that mainstream supermarkets do not carry. **Practical Tips** Stock levels for Zimbabwe-specific products fluctuate depending on import cycles. Buying in bulk when items are available — particularly Cerevita, Lobels biscuits, and Mazoe — is a common approach among diaspora shoppers. WhatsApp community groups for Zimbabweans in your city are often the fastest way to learn when a new shipment has arrived at a local shop. Prices for imported Zimbabwean branded goods are significantly higher than their Zimbabwe retail equivalents, reflecting import, shipping, and storage costs.