GRAIN millers have warned the government that the country will soon face a serious shortage of mealie–meal and have appealed that authorities revisit the recent ban on grain imports to avert possible hunger.
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) southern region chairperson David Moyo said the government announced that there is enough maize supply of over two million tonnes and that they agreed that as millers, they were going to buy the maize from the local farmers.
“The situation is no longer the same as farmers have decided to hold on to their maize.
“Maybe they are anticipating a drought. We used to take three hours to load a 30-tonne truck, but now, it takes seven days to load it,” Moyo said.
“We appeal to the government to lift the ban on the importation of maize. “We appeal to the government to revisit Statutory Instrument 87 of 25, which says a miller or contractor who buys maize from South Africa at US$310 (and) the producer price is US$376, the difference is paid to the Agricultural Marketing Authority.
“We are saying this makes the price of mealie-meal go up too high and the one that is going to suffer is the consumer.”
Moyo said the government should revert to the old system of allowing producers to create competition among the millers, which would push the price of mealie-meal down.
Mthokozisi Sibanda, the vice-chairman of GMAZ southern region, said they were receiving maize in dribs and drabs, adding that they were fast running out of supplies.
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“Our supplies are depleted,” Sibanda said. “The government has made frantic efforts to make sure that there is food stability in the southern region, but unfortunately, some of the interventions that the government has placed seem to be working against the sustainable supply of the maize grains.”
He said after SI 145/2019, which allowed the Grain Marketing Board to be the sole trader and supplier of maize, import permits were issued after which came the structural liberalisation policy, which came with its challenges such as giving privilege to a few farmers to buy grain in large quantities.
“This has affected the stability of the maize supplies. We appeal to the government to open up the borders for a free flow supply of maize considering that the southern region is continuously constrained in terms of crop production,” Sibanda said.
“The government has put SI 87 of 2025 which allows us to import, but under certain stringent conditions considering that now there is a levy, which leads to import variance and the final cost can be transferred to the consumer.”
He added that the recently introduced SI works against the ease of doing business and that the newly-promulgated law might lead to food shortages in the country.
A tour of the milling companies such as Blue Ribbon Private Limited, National Foods, Bulateke, Mathokozisa Milling Brands, Champion Consumer Brands and Sunset Milling Company revealed that their stocks had been depleted and workers in some milling companies had already been sent home.
