Zimbabwean Grocery and Food Shops in the UK: Where to Find Food from Home

Finding sadza, Mazoe, maputi, Royco usavi mix, or Colcom products in the UK takes some local knowledge. Unlike Nigerian or Ghanaian communities, which have dedicated supermarkets in most major British cities, Zimbabwean food sits across a patchwork of African stores, South African import shops, and online specialists. Knowing where to look saves time and, often, money. **Online Specialists: The Most Reliable Option** For Zimbabweans across the UK — whether in Glasgow, Bristol, or Norwich — online ordering has become the most consistent way to access home products. ZimFoods (zimfoods.co.uk), based in Birmingham, is one of the most dedicated Zimbabwean food suppliers operating in the UK. Their range includes Cerevita (both Choc Malt and Corn & Wheat variants, sold wholesale in boxes of 24), Royco Usavi Mix in both chicken and beef varieties, Colcom French Polony, mauyu (baobab fruit), and a wide selection of southern African spices and pantry staples including Aromat, Royco, and Robertsons seasoning. They also carry South African crossover products popular with Zimbabwean households such as Five Roses chai tea, Lyons Quick Brew tea bags, and Rhodes Quality Butter Beans. The site offers buy-now-pay-later options and tracked delivery. Customer reviews note delivery times of around one week from order, with international shipping available — customers have received orders as far as Japan and Russia. Red and Greens Africana Food Store (redandgreensafricanafood.com) offers a 'Shop by Nationality' feature with a dedicated Zimbabwe section alongside Nigerian, Ghanaian, South African, and Cameroonian ranges. Their stock spans meat, fish, pantry, vegetables, drinks, and snacks, and they deliver across the UK. The Savanna (thesavanna.co.uk) is primarily a South African food shop but stocks several Zimbabwean products including Mazoe Cream Soda (2L at £10.49), Maputi salted snacks (50g at £1.29), Sun Jam, Happy Hippo White Maize Kernels (1kg at £5.49), Willards Korn Kurls, and Zambezi Lager. Stock levels fluctuate and some items are frequently listed as out of stock, so it is worth checking back regularly or setting up an alert if the platform allows. Sanza (sanza.co.uk) has also been recommended by the broader southern African diaspora in the UK for imported goods, though their range skews more South African than specifically Zimbabwean. **Birmingham: The Best-Served UK City Outside London** Birmingham has one of the largest Zimbabwean communities in the UK and, accordingly, the widest physical retail options. Samis Online Wholesale Cash and Carry (285 Birchfield Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B20 3DD, tel: +44 121 359 2779) is a West African and Caribbean store that also carries pap, mealie meal, and biltong-style products relevant to Zimbabwean shoppers. It is not a Zimbabwean-specific shop but serves as a practical option for bulk staples. Nyama Butchers in Cotteridge, Birmingham, has been recommended within southern African circles for boerewors and South African-style butchery. For those replicating a braaied meal or needing proper boerewors, this is a useful stop. The Hideout Gourmet (also known as Mama Rosa's), which opened in 2018, serves cooked Zimbabwean food including sadza, alongside dishes from across the African continent such as Cameroonian Ndolé and Nigerian jollof rice. It is a restaurant rather than a grocery store, but for those wanting a cooked taste of home rather than raw ingredients, it fills a genuine gap in Birmingham's food scene. Dudley Road (B18) and the broader Handsworth area host several African and Caribbean grocery stores, including Hassan & Bros (281–287 Dudley Road) and Ennys African Caribbean Store in nearby Dudley, which are worth visiting for fresh vegetables such as matemba, dried goods, and African produce. **London** London's African food retail is extensive but geographically spread. Peckham in south-east London is the most commonly cited area for southern and east African food, with multiple shops along Rye Lane and the surrounding streets stocking mealie meal, dried fish, African vegetables, and imported tinned goods. Brixton Market and Dalston in east London similarly host African food traders. However, shops specifically labelled as Zimbabwean are rare — most stock is mixed African, and Zimbabwean products appear among South African, Zambian, and broader southern African goods. Knowing the specific brand names to look for (Cerevita, Mazoe, Royco Usavi, Colcom, Chibuku, Tanganda tea) is more useful than searching by nationality. **What You Can Typically Find and What Remains Hard to Source** Products reliably available through UK channels include mealie meal and maize meal (often sold as pap or sadza flour), Royco usavi mixes, Mazoe cordials (particularly Mazoe Orange Crush and Cream Soda, though often expensive and intermittently stocked), maputi, matemba (dried kapenta), boerewors and African-style sausages, Aromat seasoning, canned beans and pulses in South African brands, and African leaf vegetables in dried or frozen form. Products that remain genuinely hard to find or expensive include fresh lacto (sour milk), Chibuku (commercially unavailable in the UK), fresh madora (mopane worms, though dried versions appear occasionally), Tanganda tea in the original packaging, and many Colcom chilled products at affordable prices due to import costs and refrigeration logistics. **Practical Tips** WhatsApp groups within local Zimbabwean community networks often carry the most current information about which shops have just received stock. Community churches, particularly Apostolic and Pentecostal congregations with Zimbabwean congregations, are a useful network for this kind of information. Facebook groups such as Zimbabweans in the UK regularly feature posts about food finds and new suppliers. For bulk buying, coordinating an order through ZimFoods or a similar supplier with other households in your area reduces delivery costs significantly.