Economically-ravaged Zimbabwe has suspended exports of basic commodities, state media said Monday, amid a devastating meltdown and chronic food shortages.
”It is indeed true that the exportation of specified basic commodities has been suspended,” Florence Jambwa, a commissioner with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, was quoted as saying by government mouthpiece Herald newspaper.
”This is with effect from July 23 2008 and will last for a period of 12 months,” she said, adding that the goods covered included sugar, cooking oil, salt, soap, candles, rice and sanitary pads.
The suspension comes amid a political crisis in Zimbabwe that intensified after President Robert Mugabe’s re-election in June in a one-man poll widely condemned as a sham.
Power-sharing talks between Mugabe’s party and the opposition were due to continue on Monday in a bid to resolve the crisis.
Basic foods such as sugar, bread, mielie-meal — the national staple — and cooking oil are often in short supply in Zimbabwe, which was once a regional breadbasket.
The country’s inflation rate has been officially put at 2,2-million percent and at least 80% of the population lives below the poverty threshold.
Many companies have down their shutters while others are operating at a fraction of their capacity due to shortages of foreign currency used to import spares and raw materials.
Last May, the government suspended import duties on selected basic commodities in an attempt to improve local supplies. – AFP
