Acute maize meal shortage hits GMB silos (17-07-07)

crisis at the GMB with the parastatal allegedly financially squeezed to hire private transporters to the region.

“Bulawayo last received grain more than a month ago. The last consignment was from Zambia. Since then it has not received anything. As we speak there is no grain and millers are just doing nothing,” said an official at the Bulawayo GMB depot.

GMB Chief Executive Officer, Retired Colonel Samuel Muvuti confirmed a transport crisis at the parastatal is hampering efforts to effectively deliver grain to the southern region of Zimbabwe.

“We are making frantic efforts to make sure that grain gets to all people despite the transport problems we face,” confirmed Muvuti this morning. “We have since approached NRZ to release more trains for us to transport the grain.

“We are getting grain from Malawi and we would love a situation where some grain comes from Zambia…This is being discussed at senior level and we are expecting the results soon.”

Zimbabwe, which is in the grips of a biting economic crises, has declared 2007, a drought year after writing off half the country’s crop. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) have also said the country faces a serious grain deficit this year.

And the United Nations has launched a US$215 million humanitarian appeal of which US$62 million will go towards food aid requirements. The country requires 1.8 million tonnes of grain excluding 500 000 metric tonnes for strategic reserves.

The government has so far imported over 400 000 metric tonnes of maize to cover the deficit. Reports say the government has also devised a plan to barter sugar for maize with Malawi.

Zimbabwe has grappled with a food crisis since the chaotic land reform programme in 2000 owing to a combination of drought, shortage of inputs and disturbances on the farms- CAJ News.