In his recent report, the NIPC CEO said Zambia, the major source market for Zimbabwe’s maize imports, had increased the price of corn by 50 percent.
Zimbabwe has in recent years depended on cereal imports to offset local deficits due to recurrent droughts.
“Zambia, which is the major source market for maize to Zimbabwe, has increased their maize price following the review of their strategic grain stocks from 500 000 tonnes to 1 million tonnes for maize,” Ndlovu said.
Zambia, according to the report, has hiked the price of maize to $360 per tonne, a development which has prompted the prices of mealie -meal to skyrocket.
“The price of a tonne of maize from Zambia is now $265 which lands at $320 in Harare, an increase of 12 percent from the previous landing price of $285/tonne. This has led to the increase in local mealie-meal prices by an average of six percent for roller meal and eight percent for refined maize meal in the last few weeks or so,” he added.
Ndlovu further said global prices of fuel were going up, a trend likely to push local prices up as well. “Fuel prices have increased significantly in the global markets by an average of 9.89 percent in the last month and Developing Countries are the most affected,” said Ndlovu.
The report also reveals that major retailers are scaling or closing down due to increased competition within the local retail market.
“Retailers such as Afrofoods are closing down operations with the big three like OK, Spar Group and TM/Pick and Pay increasingly dominating the retail market,” he mentioned.
Post published in: Agriculture