Price of bread up as shortages persist

Price of bread up as shortages persist

• Bread prices up 50 percent

• Zim officials break ranks on food crisis

• Mutasa's lie rant at radio journalist in food crisis row

• Zimbabwe price controls spark food shortages

• Parliament shoots down bumber harvest claims

• Moyo says harvest enough for season

• Zimbabweans await proof of 'bumper harvest'

• Famine claims 152 in Bulawayo

• UN warns 2,4 million pople need food aid

• Zim still expects 'bumper harvest'

• Mudenge denies Zim snubbed UN envoy

• Mugabe too busy to meet UN envoy

• Zim rejects food aid

• UN aid agencies pull out

• Zimbabwe turns back food aid

By Givemore Nyanhi

THE price of bread went up from $3 500 to $4 000 Friday at some shops that had the scarce commodity, while other basic commodities such as cooking oil, sugar, maize meal and milk remained unavailable at three major supermarkets in Harare.

At least two of the supermarkets had empty bread racks, while the only other supermarket that had fresh baked bread in supply was characterised by a long queue of more than 30 people waiting to buy a white loaf of bread for $3 500 in the early afternoon.

But it was a different scenario in high-density suburbs such as Warren Park and Mabvuku, where most shopkeepers and tuckshop owners had hiked a loaf of Lobels bread by about 12 percent to $4 000.

The shopkeepers argued that they were facing difficulties in the purchase and distribution of bread from major manufacturers because of two reasons: namely the ongoing shortage of fuel and the short supply of wheat in the country due to the poor rains.

With the country already making preparations to import wheat, as well as maize, to increase food security, the cost of bread is set to shoot up in response to the import costs and foreign currency necessary to feed the nation, analysts and observers said.

All three shops did not have maize meal, the country’s staple food, in supply at all – a situation that began a month ago soon after the March 31 parliamentary polls.

Maize meal was not the only product out of supply; sugar has disappeared from the shelves of city supermarkets for a similar period of time. By yesterday afternoon, fresh milk supply showed all the signs that it would soon disappear completely, with shoppers buying even those dairy products they would normally chose to ignore.

Traditional Dairibord products have been scarce in most shops for some time now, though a number of new but relatively unknown dairy companies were selling milk, among them yellow packaged Amanzi and white packaged Glen Clova Dairy.

Though the products have vanished from the shelves of most retail shops in the city and most urban centres countrywide, the products have been resurfacing
on the black market in an uncanny way that revives memories of
the unwelcome 2003 food shortages.

And most of these products are being sold at exorbitant levels, a development that could have negative effects on the central bank’s anti-inflation drive.
Of the three different supermarkets visited yesterday, only one of them had cooking oil in supply early in the afternoon, though there were pronounced indications that demand would soon overwhelm supply as customers were beginning to jostle for the commodity.

Commodity	OK	TM	FCG
C/Oil (750ml)	-	$19 700	-
Sugar	-	-	-
Bread	-	$4000
Meat/kg	$49500	$36500	$55500

The cooking oil that was available yesterday, Sunola Refined Cooking Oil, is manufactured in South Africa, and a 750 ml bottle was selling at $19 700 while a 2-litre bottle was selling at $49 200. Locally manufactured oil was only available on the black market.

Zimbabwe Sugar Refineries (ZSR) and Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited (DZL), both of which have been diversifying from their core businesses of sugar and milk respectively, into other sectors such as transport, wholesaling, beverages and value-addition, have yet to come out with official statements on the developments.

These listed companies, alongside other basic commodities manufacturers such as National Foods, have been diversifying as a way of moving away from raw material supply problems due to the unavailability of foreign currency - Daily Mirror
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