Zimbabwe hikes maize price by 680 percent

Zimbabwe hikes maize price by 680 percent

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By Staff Reporter

THE Zimbabwe government has announced a 680 per cent increase in the price of maize, a staple foodstuff.
Rugare Gumbo, the agriculture minister, said the rise was to back a 570 per cent increase in the producer price of maize awarded to farmers to encourage food production.

With immediate effect, a 5kg bag of corn meal will sell for 21,874 Zimbabwe dollars (£44), up from Z$3,200 (£6.40).

A 10-kilogramme bag of maize meal will now cost 41,561.35 Zimbabwe dollars (US$166) in shops, up from 6,200 Zimbabwe dollars.

A 20-kilogramme bag will cost 78,988.57 Zimbabwe dollars, up from 11,800. Most workers in Zimbabwe earn between 200,000 and 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars a month.

Very few shops have had the commodity on their shelves in recent weeks. Zimbabweans were already paying amounts similar to the new price on the unofficial market.

The government has also increased the amount it pays to farmers who grow the crop, from just over 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars a tonne to three million Zimbabwe dollars a tonne.

The new producer price for maize will be three million dollars per metric tonne while the new (state-run Grain Marketing Board) GMB selling price to millers will be 3,100,000 dollars per metric tonne, Gumbo said.

Zimbabwe is facing a deficit of at least one million tonnes of maize this year due to low production and poor rains that have almost entirely wiped out crops in some provinces.

The cash-strapped government has announced that it is importing 500,000 tonnes of maize from neighbouring countries to cover part of the shortfall.

In computing the new producer price, the major objective was to stimulate maize production to levels of national sufficiency, said Gumbo.

“We hope the new maize producer prices will give impetus to maize producers in the 2007/2008 farming season,” he said.

Corn meal, milled from maize, is the mainstay of the Zimbabwe diet. A 5kg bag will feed a family of six - a typical family size in Zimbabwe - eating just one meal a day, for four to five days.

The old price was held artificially low by the government. Boiled corn meal, known as sadza, is the principal bulk of a meal, accompanied by a savoury vegetable or meat stew. It is also eaten as a porridge.

"Sadza is part of our way of life. Things are terrible all around, but it [the price increase] makes it worse on this of all days," said Bridget Mhkizwe, a Harare mother. "I don't know how we'll manage."

Overall, official inflation surged last month to 2,200 per cent, the highest in the world.

Meanwhile, Malawi has begun exporting 400,000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe, which faces a 1.5 million tonnes deficit in the grain.
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