The shutdown
was confirmed during a plant visit on Monday, where company officials revealed
production had stopped in April due to the scarcity of maize.
This
development contrasts sharply with public assurances from President Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka that the country is enjoying
a surplus.
In May,
Mnangagwa told a Zanu-PF Central Committee meeting that good rains had paved
the way for a “bumper harvest.”
Minister Masuka
later announced a cereal output of 2.9 million tonnes, above the 2.2 million
tonnes needed annually.
David Moyo,
chairperson of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) Southern
Region.
On the ground,
however, millers say maize is increasingly hard to find.
“At the
beginning, we were able to buy from local farmers and the maize was there,”
said David Moyo, chairperson of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe
(GMAZ) Southern Region. “But now, it is hard to fill a 30-tonne truck.
Sometimes you get three or two 50kg bags a day. It takes a week to fill a
truck.”
To ease the
shortages, authorities recently allowed private firms to import maize. But a
new statutory instrument has added to the difficulties, requiring millers to
pay a levy based on the price difference between imported maize about US$300 a
tonne from South Africa and the domestic price of US$200 a tonne. The surcharge
is collected by the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA).
Moyo said the
measure was counterproductive: “The statutory instrument is unfair and costly.
Eventually, the burden will be passed on to the consumer. We are simply asking
the government to allow millers to import maize freely, without these added
levies, as was previously the case.”
He argued that
freeing up the import framework would reduce production costs and benefit
consumers.
“The private
sector is here to complement the government. We are partners in ensuring that
no Zimbabwean goes hungry in line with the President’s own promise that no one
will be left behind,” he added. CITE
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