Bread shortage to persist
Tabitha Mutenga Features Editor
Financial Gazette
26/6/2019
THE current bread shortages are expected to spill into 2020 after the country failed to meet its wheat planting target of 75 000 hectares, government has said.
Zimbabwe is facing an acute shortage of bread, whose price nearly doubled yesterday to $7, 28, as the national wheat reserves continue to plummet.
Deputy Agriculture minister Vangelis Haritatos said government had enough inputs for the current farming season and 60 000 hectares were put under Command Agriculture while the private sector chipped in with 15 000 hectares.
However, the hectarage was reduced because of electricity shortages and limited land under irrigation,
“It is my assessment that we would have had enough wheat for the country and would have been almost self-sufficient as a nation. Unfortunately, due to challenges, some farmers did not grow wheat and therefore, we expect a huge shortfall of wheat this coming season from our local growers,” he said.
Government initially hoped to improve the wheat crisis, largely due to foreign currency shortages, by increasing support for whiter wheat farming. However, the current load shedding and the unavailability of irrigation equipment affected those plans.
To avert the bread shortage, Haritatos said government floated a tender for the importation of 200 000 tonnes of wheat.
“Our ministry has already floated a tender for 200 000 metric tonnes through the Grain Marketing Board and several individuals have shown interest. We believe that they will fulfil these tenders. Currently we only use 30 000 metric tonnes of wheat a month, so 200 000 metric tonnes will be sufficient for almost seven months,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s wheat production declined from 186 243 tonnes in 2017 to 160 600 tonnes last year, resulting in the country relying on imports to make up for shortfalls and meet national demand, estimated at 400 000 tonnes annually.
The southern Africa country’s economy has been ailing since the early 2000s when the farm sector went into a nosedive.
Both cash and basic goods are increasingly in short supply, prompting calls for government to urgently find ways to fix the situation.