Financial Gazette (Harare)
Kumbirai Mafunda
18 October 2007
Harare — ZIMBABWE will continue grappling with severe bread shortages following revelations that the distressed country will harvest 144 870 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat, its tiniest crop since independence.
Information obtained by The Financial Gazette this week reveals a grim state of affairs where the Agriculture Research and Extension Services (AREX) projects this year's wheat harvest to fall to 144 870 metric tones, against an annual domestic consumption of 400 000 tonnes.
The tiny crop harvest will result in a deficit of 255 000 metric tonnes, which would have to be covered through imports.
"Wheat production for 2007 is estimated to be about 144 870 MT, which is 40 percent lower than the 2006 production level of about 242 000 MT. The 2007 production falls far short of national requirements estimated to be around 400 000 MT, leaving an import requirement of about 255 000 MT," read part of AREX's presentation to the Agricultural Coordination Working Group Journal released this week and seen by The Financial Gazette.
Karsto Kwazira, an AREX official, blamed the poor wheat harvest on erratic power supplies and shortages of inputs.
"The major challenges faced by farmers, which resulted in the low production, were severe power outages; shortage of top dressing fertilizer; irrigation equipment breakdown; and quelea bird damage on the very early planted crop," said Kwazira.
Zimbabwe's state-run Grain Marketing Board has since last month been battling to secure the release of 36 000 tonnes of wheat stuck at the seaport of Beira in Mozambique pending payment of US$15 million.
Already the Bakers Association of Zimbabwe has reported that more than 10 000 workers are on the verge of losing their jobs in the baking industry because of flour shortages and a government enforced order to slash prices of bread by half.
The country's main bread maker Lobels Bread has scaled back its operations by shutting one of its largest outlets due to a shortage of wheat.
Bread shortages have been worsened by the government's price controls imposed in June that saw prices of basic commodities slashed by at least 50 percent.
Zimbabwe has suffered severe bread shortages since the collapse of agricultural production in 2002.
The land grab exercise has backfired as consumers are now importing bread from neighbouring Botswana, South Africa and Zambia.
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