ZIMBABWE: Millers want increase in maize meal prices

Zimbabweans are to face an increase in the price of the staple maize meal from the end of May if the country's millers have their way. Misheck Nyamupingidza, chairman of the Millers Association, told IRIN on Tuesday that his association had recommended to the government a hike in the price of maize meal following the rise in the producer price of maize paid to farmers. A contract between the millers and the state-owned Grain Marketing Board to buy maize at around US $75 per mt ends shortly, and a new price has been set at aproximately US $107 per mt. "They have to pass the costs on, they can't absorb it," a senior Commercial Farmers Union official told IRIN. Minister of Industry and Commerce Nathan Shamuyarira was quoted in the government daily 'The Herald' on Monday as saying: "We had to increase the producer price of maize to enable both the communal and commercial farmers to meet the rising input costs. As a result, the price of maize meal will go up at the end of May." He added that the government was discussing the extent of the price rise with the millers and the Grain Marketing Board, "but I want to assure consumers that the percentage increase will be modest and affordable." A hike in maize meal led to widespread rioting last year, with the army deployed on the streets for the first time since independence to contain the disturbances. Zimbabwe, according to regional food security analysts, requires around 1.8 million mt of maize for domestic consumption, yet over the last two years the country has been producing about 1.5 million mt. This has forced the Grain Marketing Board to import about 460,000 mt of maize to beef up stocks.