Zim’s wheat import bill goes down

ZIMBABWE’S wheat import bill is reported to have gone down due to the depressed demand of bread on the local market as most people have been hard hit by low disposal income culminating in them resorting to consume alternative food stuffs.

In an interview with Sunday News Business after a media briefing in Bulawayo last Tuesday, Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe ( GMAZ) national chairperson Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said the country has four months supplies of wheat and imports volumes of the commodity have reduced owing to low-uptake by bakeries.

“We have four months supplies of wheat as a country at the moment and more so we continue to bring in some more wheat but the demand for bread is depressed at the moment and that prolongs the import cover that we have, so as for bread everything is sorted. We are anticipating that His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) is going to announce subsidies for bread (wheat) and volumes are going to go up and we are prepared for it,” he said.

Last year there was massive bread shortage in the country culminating from the unavailability of wheat. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has failed to produce 400 000 tonnes of wheat it needs per year while spending close to US$100 million in wheat imports annually to cater for the deficit. The country requires at least 450 000 tonnes of wheat per year to meet the national bread requirements of nearly a million loaves per day.

Mr Musarara said GMAZ who would remain committed to wheat contract farming through the National Wheat Contract Committee would soon come up with its projected hectarage to put under the crop this season.

Last year, the NWCFC cropped 30 000 hectares to attain an optimum yield due to low water levels at most of the dams from which water was drawn for irrigation at various irrigation schemes around the country. NWCFC is a private sector response mechanism to pleas by Government for industry to support contracting farming.

“We need to look at the dam levels by the time we plant (this season) thus we don’t have the figures (we are going to plant) yet,” said Mr Musarara.

Owing to the exorbitant price of flour confections with a loaf costing $18, most people are being forced to turn to other alternatives. Contacted for a comment National Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe president Mr Dennis Wallah said the low demand for bread was largely attributed to low disposable income among the country’s majority.

“At the end of the day the uptake has been a bit slow because obviously demand has been depressed by the fact that disposable income is not where it is supposed to be,” he said.

Mr Wallah said the availability of flour has significantly improved since late last year when Government lifted a ban on private grain sales and granted the nod to individuals and corporates with free funds to import quantities of their choice to complement Treasury’s efforts in ensuring adequate national grain reserves. The Government has also facilitated the establishment of more than 3 000 community bakeries in various remote areas in the country as part of its efforts to increase the production of confectionery products, including bread, at affordable prices to rural communities.