/ 18 July 2001

ZIMBABWE?S GOVERNMENT MONOPOLISES GRAIN

THE government of Zimbabwe, where food shortages are looming, has granted a monopoly to allow a grain marketing parastatal to buy maize and wheat — the two main staple crops — from farmers. The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) becomes the sole and official buyer of grains from all farmers across the country, while millers will have to buy from the GMB, according to an extraordinary government gazette issued on Tuesday. “Maize, maize meal, wheat and wheat flour shall be controlled products within the whole of Zimbabwe,” the gazette said. The move comes amid suspicions that some commercial farmers were trying to create artificial food shortages. Zimbabweans consume between 1,8-million and two million tonnes of maize per year, but officials estimate that only 1,4-million tonnes will be harvested this year, and the nation’s reserves are nearly empty. – AFP

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