The staple diet for the majority of Zimbabwe’s 12 million-plus people, maize-meal has been in short supply since June when the government directed producers and manufacturers to slash by half prices of goods and services.
The shortage was further compounded by a poor harvest during which only about 800 000 metric tones of grain was delivered to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) against a national annual requirement of about two million metric tonnes.
Documents in possession of ZimOnline show that the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) last Tuesday wrote to the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) requesting an immediate maize-meal price adjustment to keep the sector afloat.
If approved, the request would see the price of a five-kilogramme bag of roller meal rising by 228 percent from $68 000 currently to $222 765. The same bag of maize-meal is going for between $500 000 and $1 million on a thriving black market. – Zimonline
Post published in: News