THURSDAY, 6.00PM:
ZIMBABWE’S Millers Association announced on Thursday that it will raise the price of mealiemeal (a porridge made from maize), Zimbabwe’s national staple, by between 15% and 18% as soon as current stocks run out.
This flies in the face of a promise made by President Robert Mugabe’s government in the wake of the January food riots that the price of mealiemeal will be held static for the rest of the year.
In January, the government ordered millers to revoke a 30% hike in the mealiemeal price after rioting erupted in urban areas countrywide in protest against spiralling food prices. The state-owned Grain Marketing Board, the country’s biggest maize trading company, was also forced to drop its wholesale price by nearly 20% to Z$2400 per ton.
In April, however, the country’s three agricultural unions complained that the low GMB prices were driving them out of business, and threatened to withdraw their maize crop from sale unless they were paid Z$2400 per ton.
The government last month acquiesced to their demands. Last week however, the GMB raised its price back to Z$2800 per ton.
With the retail price of the staple held at Z$49,70 for a kilogram bag, the Millers Association said on Thursday millers face huge losses, and there is a likelihood of food shortages. It is not yet clear whether the millers have defied the government’s bid to hold down the price, or have its sanction.