Bread hope for Zimbabweans

He told independent weekly, The Financial Gazette, that 2 000 tonnes of the consignment, which was stuck in Mozambique for several weeks, would finally arrive in the troubled southern African country on Friday.

Gumbo did not disclose whether Zimbabwe had paid for the consignment.

The wheat would augment diminishing flour supplies that have resulted in bread shortages and put over 10 000 jobs on the line as bakeries closed.

Currency shortage

Zimbabwe is grappling with an acute foreign currency shortage made worse by an economic crisis and the withdrawal of balance of payment support by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Zimbabwean government on Thursday reviewed the wheat producer price in a bid to stimulate falling output.

Gumbo also told the paper that the producer price of wheat would increase by Z$42m per tonne from Z$217 913.40 a tonne, saying the increase was meant to entice harvesting farmers to deliver the grain to the state grain buyer, the Grain Marketing Board.

The government official also added that 144 000 tonnes of wheat were expected to be harvested this year, but still projected a shortfall of 286 000 tonnes.

According to the government of the 49 707 hectares of wheat at least 987 hectares have been written off.

But farmers' organisations say an estimated 5 000 hectares out of the 8 000 hectares of winter wheat were a write-off due to persistent power cuts, which disrupted irrigation.

Zimbabwe's agriculture output has taken a dip after President Robert Mugabe's government ordered the seizure of white owned farms.

The country now depends on imports, which strains its already precarious foreign currency position.

- Fin24