R2OK!

iknewdavidjacobsmum · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 336

I tried to post a link, but was cut off. This is a newspaper report.

Consumer watchdog concerned about maize price increase
BULAWAYO, May 3, 2007 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwean government has raised the price of scarce maizemeal by almost 600 percent to stimulate production, but a consumer watchdog is warning that it will make the staple food unaffordable.
Agricultural minister Rugare Gumbo announced this week that the retail price for maizemeal would go up to support a 680 percent increase awarded to maize farmers.

The official Herald newspaper quoted Gumbo as saying that the state monopoly, the Grain Marketing Board, would now pay maize producers Z$3 million (US$120 at the parallel market exchange rate) per metric tonne (mt), up from Z$52,000 (about US$2) per mt, and sell grain to millers at Z$3.1 million (US$124) per mt to “stimulate maize production to levels of national sufficiency in terms of food security”. As a result, the official retail price of a 5kg bag of maizemeal soared from Z$3,200 (US$0.12) to Zim$21,874 (US$0.87), an increase of 583 percent. This is in line with maize prices on the parallel market, where the commodity is readily available.

“For the price of maizemeal to go up by such a high percentage is unheard of,” said Comfort Muchekeza, a spokesman for the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ).

“It spells doom for consumers, who are already battling with inflation of 2,200 percent and a [monthly] consumer basket of about a Zim$1 million (US$40). It's actually a blow that will send many consumers tumbling, especially considering that wages are low and prices of other consumables continue to soar almost on a daily basis

Most families with six members consume a 20kg bag of maizemeal every month, which will now cost Z$78,988.57 (US$3.15) instead of Z$11,800 (US$0.47), while average salaries range between Z$200,000 (US$8) and Z$500,000 (US$20) a month.

“The increases will definitely push up the required amount of money a family needs to spend on basic foodstuffs per month. We realise that many families are living in abject poverty and could barely even afford the previous prices,” Muchekeza added.

Gumbo defended the increases, saying they were meant to cushion farmers and cover a deficit that has sent alarm bells ringing in the southern African country.

“We know the bearing it has on consumers, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We realised, after increasing the producer price for maize grain, that there was need to balance the scale by increasing the price of maizemeal,” Gumbo told IRIN.
Consumers told IRIN the increase in the price of their staple food was a slap in the face.

I earn less than Z$200,000 (US$8) and have a family of five. The current food basket stands at about Z$1 million (US$40) and already I have difficulties providing for my family. Now that maizemeal costs this much, I really don't know how we will survive; now we need the grace of God,” said Nonsikelelo Dube, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city.

Economic analyst John Robertson concurred with the CCZ and consumers, pointing out that while the increases were a windfall for farmers, they were a nightmare for consumers.
“Obviously farmers are happy, but what is most apparent is that consumers are the most affected. The increases in both grain and maizemeal will help push inflationary pressures that will lead to more suffering for the masses,” he told IRIN.
The government has already declared 2007 a drought year and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme are undertaking an assessment of the country's agricultural system and food aid requirement

This year's maize harvest is expected to be less than 600,000mt, only about a quarter of the country's annual national requirement of 2.4 million mt.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

This deserves a response, but the sad state of affairs in this once relatively prosperous country of Southern Africa leaves one lost for words. Sad

_________________
Ron

gfloyd · Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 5:07 pm Post subject:

It makes you glad not to live in a country controlled by a totalitarian regime led by a thug.
_________________
His name was ernie ........ and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west.....

Mark Mayhew · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2897

A member of my team at my company of work is from Zimbawbe-she has been with me for 18 months. From recent conversations with her she tells me her parents who are still in Zimbabwe are who were considered to be relatively "well off/wealthy" when she left to come to the UK are now starting to get real worried about the current state of affairs there.

She calls her parents a couple of times of week from the UK to check on theitr well being and quite simply her parents tell her things are getting worse and worse by the day-current concerns are "food shortages ,basic supplies are running out, are they going to lose their farm/land, the infrastruture of the country breaking down,big law and order issues looming

Her parents tell her the "people will stand up and revolt against the current regime shortly otherwise total disaster is looming".

It seems to be a very bad state of affairs and real suffering amongst big swathes of the population which backs up the newspaper stories we read daily etc.

Cherskiy · Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject:

Mugabe's "land reform" measures don't appear to be working too well.

The successful farmers who accounted for much of the country's crop yields in previous years have either been killed or forced away from their farms, their lands then being split up and given in many cases to people who haven't a clue about how to grow crops.

Anyone who stands up again the current regime seems to get beaten up, tortured or worse. Mugabe is only interested in holding onto power - anything else is secondary.
_________________
Author: “To the Ends of the Earth: A Snapshot of Aviation in North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992”
(Free to read via Kindle Unlimited)

mcl · Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 10:11 pm Post subject:

It's profoundly depressing that in the 21st century a racist, hompohobic bigot like Mugabe is allowed to run a once-prosperous country into the ground while the international community sits back and does nothing - even the laughable restrictions place on him and his henchmen are regularly flouted, a situation which Uncle Bob finds most amusing. Even in the bad old days of Iain Smith things can't have been this bad, surely?

Of course, if someone struck oil in the middle of Harare things would be rather different......
_________________
"....you're wearing a plywood bow tie with Dundee United on it?"

Behind Geddon's Wall · Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 7:48 am Post subject:

In this case, words seem inadequate. I personally don't know anyone from Zimbabwe, but I grew up during the Days of UDI. The country was given a new chance which the politicos have squandered. I hope that soon men of goodwill will be able to bring the country round and let the BBC in so that we can see what is happening.
_________________
Geddon

You simply mustn't blame yourself -- the days were perfect
And so were exactly what I was born to spoil
For I am the Rider to the World's End
Bound across the cinder causeway
From the furnace to the quarry
Through the fields of oil