President Robert Mugabe’s cash-strapped government in Zimbabwe cannot afford to pay for 36 000 tonnes of wheat stuck at the nearest seaport of Beira in Mozambique, reports said on Sunday.
Zimbabwe’s Security Minister Didymus Mutasa told the official Sunday Mail that a shortage of hard currency means Harare cannot make a one-off payment to the international supplier of the grain.
”As soon as we pay, a little amount is brought into the country. We are still feeding from hand to mouth, as this is usually a week’s supply,” he said. ”We are, however, trying to ensure that that little is enough to give the market sufficient bread for the moment.”
He did not say how much it would cost to release the entire consignment.
Bread has been in short supply since Mugabe’s government imposed sweeping price controls on all goods and services at the end of June in a bid to quell inflation now at more than 7 600%.
The price of bread was slashed in June to Z$22 000 a loaf from Z$45 000. But the strategy backfired, as commodities disappeared from store shelves only to reappear on the black market at highly inflated prices.
Basics such as milk, meat, cooking oil and sugar are rarely found on the formal market now.
At the few places where bread is still available, there are long queues of people. A recent official bread price hike to Z$30 000 a loaf has not improved supplies.
Commentators say hundreds of office workers in central Harare are turning to ice cream as an unlikely lunchtime substitute.
There seems little prospect of relief, especially as Zimbabwe’s wheat harvest due at the end of October is expected to be the worst in seven years. Zimbabwe’s millers need 450 000 tonnes of wheat a year.
Experts say power shortages disrupted irrigation of this year’s wheat crop, which is likely to be way below the 78 000 tonnes reaped last year. — Sapa-dpa