afrol News, 3 May - The massive hike of prices of maize by the Zimbabwean government was a far from the expectation of poor Zimbabweans. Rugare Gumbo, the Agriculture Minister, spilled the beans that the government increased the country’s staple food by 680 percent.

The Agriculture Minister said the government had taken the decision was to back a 570 percent increase of the producer price of maize awarded to farmers to encourage food production.

A 10kg bag of corn maize which is sold for Z $6,200 (US $24) will now cost Z $41,561 (US$166) in shops.

Consequently, a 20 kg bag of maize will now cost Z $ 78,988 (US $315) instead of Z $11,800 (US $47).

The monthly salary of most Zimbabwean workers ranges from Z $200,000 (US $800) and Z $500,000 (US $2,000).

Maize corn was out of stock in most shops in recent weeks. Consumers resort to paying exorbitant prices to get the product from the few shops.

Besides, the government has hiked the amount it pays to farmers to grow the crop from over Z $ 50,000 (US $200) to Z $3 million (US $12,000) a tonne.

Mr Gumbo said while the new producer price for maize stands at Z $3 million per metric tonnes, the new price of the state-run Grain Marketing Board will peg its selling price to 3,100,000 dollars per metric tonne.

The prices hikes have come at a time when the southern African country is face with food deficit of a million ton a year, mainly due to poor rainfalls.

Zimbabwe is also planning to cover the shortfall by importing 500,000 tonnes of maize from neighbouring countries.

The Agriculture Minister added that the government’s major objective is to stimulate maize production to levels of national sufficiency, which will compute the new producer price.

“We hope the new maize producer prices will give impetus to maize producers in the 2007/2008 farming season,” he said.

Most Zimbabweans mixed the boiled corn maize known sadza with vegetables or meat stew as their major meal. Some also cook porridge from corn.

Zimbabwe was once the food basket of the southern Africa region but the country has been forced to import most of its food consumption from abroad. The new trend has been the result of the government’s land reform programme.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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