Opposition accused of creating food crisis

Zimbabwe's food crisis has become highly politicised with the government accusing the opposition for the shortages that have seen basic commodities disappear off shop shelves. This week Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said millers were stockpiling flour for speculative purposes. His statement followed allegations by the police that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was engineering shortages to foment political unrest. Eddie Cross, MDC secretary for economic affairs, dismissed the allegations. He told IRIN: "The government is trying to create a scapegoat for its own shortcomings and these allegations won't stand up to scrutiny. "It's nonsense that we are going to encourage vendors [unofficial traders] to profit from shortages. Vendors are a natural development because of the collapse of price controls." Cross said the MDC had been drawing attention to the looming crisis since February 2001 and had consistently supported the efforts of the United Nations and donor communities who are providing assistance. "We reject the accusation completely," he said. The official Herald newspaper reported that Made dismissed a plea by the chairman of the Bakers Association of Zimbabwe, Armitage Chikwavira, for the government to import wheat to stave off bread shortages. He said the country had adequate stocks and accused millers of rationing supplies to make money on the blackmarket. Cross, who is also a baker, disagreed. "There is no hoarding, three weeks ago the [government-controlled] Grain Marketing Board cut deliveries to millers by 50 percent." Only five kg bags of flour for household use were easy to obtain. But even at reduced levels of consumption, stocks would run out by the end of July. This confirms World Food Programme (WFP) warnings that the country was on the brink of a disaster which could leave 5.6 million people, out of a population of almost 13 million, without access to food. Even people with money would battle to find stocks to cover household needs. Earlier this week the Social Welfare Ministry said current food stocks were at the level of "hand to mouth". Cross explained that government traditionally imported extra wheat to stretch local supplies, but was unable to do so this year due to foreign exchange shortages. The critical maize shortage has also created an unexpected switch to bread as a staple food, pushing consumption up markedly. At the moment, customers are rationed to one loaf at a time, he said. The country also had a shortage of stockfeed, which was prohibitively expensive for farmers who were granted licences to import quantities of feed. This has led to shortages of milk and poultry. The country had also only grown half its oil seed requirements, creating shortages of cooking oil and margarine. A drop in the number of dairy farmers, brought on by land reform, had almost halved milk production, said Cross. Of the grain situation, Vanessa McKay of the Zimbabwe Grain Producers Association said: "By the end of July we will have a complete 'stock out' situation and rely 100 percent on imports." Only the government is allowed to import and distribute maize and wheat products. The scarcity of foreign exchange has compounded the problem. In October 2000 the government capped the exchange rate at US $1 to Zim $55 to stop a downward spiral, but a shortage of foreign currency brought on by reduced production and exports has spawned a competitive parallel market. Importers who don't have ready foreign exchange turn to this market to pay for their goods. The parallel rates have hovered around Zim $350 for US $1 but have been reported to top Zim $1,000 according to demand. The increased expense pushes production prices up and government price controls on basic commodities prevent companies from setting their own profit margins. "We need price controls to be abolished. If government is worried about consumer spending power they must introduce a fair system of consulting producers to review prices and keep people in business," McKay said. She added that an untapped source of foreign exchange lay in the sheds of tobacco farmer where US $320 million worth of tobacco was waiting to be graded. A land reform law forced almost 3,000 of the country's commercial farmers to down tools on 25 June in preparation for their eviction from the land. Grading the tobacco would be a criminal offence. Fifteen sugar farmers have already been singled out by police for defying the order to stop farming. In a possible precedent-setting case, a farmer notched a symbolic court victory when he was granted interim relief to continue farming until a further court date on the grounds that the amendments to the land act were unconstitutional, AFP reported. While shortages and parallel markets have become a daily reality for Zimbabwe's consumers, already battling an inflation rate of over 100 percent, the Zimbabwe Consumer Council (ZCC) said so far nobody had lodged an official complaint that the shortages were politically motivated. ZCC senior manager Victor Chisi said: "This has not come to us as an official complaint. Perhaps it is discussed at a national level that there is connivance between the MDC and industry. I'd like to believe that political parties have a responsibility to ensure that their membership is alive, that they should survive." He explained that some of the shortages were caused by a combination of business conditions, opportunism and a reaction to price controls. Prices of certain basic commodities were fixed last October and supermarkets and shops are policed to ensure compliance. This includes maize, sugar, cooking oil, soap, chicken and some agricultural inputs. Chisi said vendors spotted an opportunity and are buying up supplies at the depressed prices. Some form cartels to sell the items at higher prices. Families queue to buy the maximum ration per person, then pool their stock, selling it at the higher prices elsewhere. A two kg bag of sugar costs Zim $76 (US $1.40 at the official rate) at the government price, but Zim $400 (US $7.50) on the parallel market. "Some vendors have more stocks than the supermarkets they are operating next to," Chisi said. "Policing doesn't apply to them because they are always shifting. Consumers appear to have accepted this, opting rather to have regular supplies of scarce commodities." However, there are concerns that vendors were being "sponsored" to sell on behalf of large companies. "We don't know if the vendors are real or if they are being created by the formal sector," he said. Spokespeople from several large retailers contacted were not immediately available to comment. However, Chisi said the formal sector was concerned that price fixing prevented them from recouping production costs or raising prices when necessary. He said there were plans afoot to set up a monitoring mechanism to give businesses room to remain viable and perhaps devise an industrial pricing formula to cover production costs. But he was concerned that hoarders and vendors were acting in bad faith and "holding the nation to ransom". "The situation of consumers is already bad enough. They have to buy commodities at inflated prices and their welfare is threatened," he said.