How to work with Farmasi in Zimbabwe

Farmasi is a direct sales company: it manufactures its own cosmetics in Turkey and sells them through people rather than shops. You enroll as an entrepreneur, buy at a discount, and earn in two ways: from what you sell and from what the team you build sells. That much anyone will tell you. The detail is where it gets interesting.

Worth saying plainly: most people who join any direct sales company earn little or nothing. Farmasi's own 2025 income disclosure states that 46.43% of participants earned no commission that year. That does not make it a scam; it means half the people enroll, do nothing and drop out. Join expecting automatic income and you will be disappointed. Join understanding it is a small business you have to work, and it looks different.

Zimbabwe has one requirement that matters more than any duty rate. Cosmetics are explicitly on the CBCA list — HS 3303 perfumes, 3304 beauty and skin care, 3305 hair products all require a Consignment Based Conformity Assessment certificate issued before shipment, with no value threshold and no personal-effects carve-out written into SI 124 of 2020. A consignment that arrives without one attracts a penalty of 15% of CIF value plus inspection costs. One thing in your favour: cosmetics are not on ZIMRA's 25% surtax list, which covers foods, beverages, cleaning products, candles, footwear and appliances.

The traveller's rebate of USD 200 per person per month applies to accompanied goods only and expressly not to goods for commercial purposes, so it does not cover a shipped order. On currency, the legal position is genuinely tangled: the Exchange Control Act permits settlement in foreign currency until the end of 2030, while a 2019 provision making the Zimbabwe dollar sole legal tender was never amended.

Given the CBCA requirement, plan your ordering around fewer, larger, properly certified consignments rather than a steady trickle of small parcels.

As a side income, five or six focused hours a week will hold it up. As a main activity it is a full-time business like any other, except there is no salary: you earn what you move. The first quarter is usually learning and small numbers, and that is exactly where almost everyone quits.

Enrollment happens on the official Farmasi Zimbabwe site and takes about ten minutes. The sign-up guide has the exact requirements, the paperwork and the direct link.