Augustine Mukaro
17 August 2007
BREAD shortages are set to worsen as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has failed to secure US$10 million to pay for wheat currently docked at Beira.
Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) senior vice president and Superbake owner David Govere this week said bakers were failing to meet production targets because GMB was not providing the wheat.
"The GMB has been battling to secure US$10 million for 36 000 tonnes of wheat which docked in Beira two months ago," Govere said. "Some officials believe that the RBZ has been trying to bypass GMB by using South African agents to secure the wheat but that has failed since RBZ needs GMB for the logistics."
He said bakers were now blaming poor co-ordination between the government institutions for the low production of bread and the shortages.
Forecasts for this year's wheat -- due to be delivered in October -- indicate that production will be the lowest in 20 years.
"This year's yield is less than 25% of the country's annual requirement," Govere said. "Unless urgent steps are taken to avail foreign currency to secure more wheat, the country is heading for a huge food crisis, particularly so given that most supermarket shelves are already empty of alternative foodstuffs. This food crisis is expected to spill well into next year until the next harvest."
Farmers recently blamed Zesa for erratic power supplies, saying that their wheat crop wilted in the fields from lack of irrigation. They said irrigation cycles on farms were disrupted, and many electric irrigation pumps were damaged resulting in the projected poor harvest.
Farmers groups have predicted a harvest below the 78 000 tonnes produced last year against the country's needs of more than 400 000 tonnes of wheat a year for local consumption.
The country has been plunged into serious basic commodity shortages following the recent government price blitz. Impact assessment surveys have shown that retailers have suffered most as those that had purchased goods at high prices made huge losses.
Some manufacturing companies have been forced to scale down operations, some closed shop, leading to shortages of basic commodities and increased unemployment.
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