MAIZE meal supplies were running perilously low in Zimbabwean shops on Tuesday, with output of Zimbabwe’s staple food dwindling as a stand-off over prices between millers and the government entered its second week. Supermarkets around the capital Harare have run out of the cheaper variety of maize meal. Newspapers say supplies in other parts of the country have also shrunk. The latest crisis erupted after the government allowed the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to increase maize producers’ prices by 88,5%, but allowed millers a rise of only 20%. Most maize millers have halted operations in protest. President Robert Mugabe’s government introduced maize meal price controls in early 1998. Industry and Commerce Minister Nathan Shamuyarira says the government wants the issue resolved amicably, but accuses the millers of unfairly passing on their rising costs to consumers.
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