Bread supplies improve

Source: Bread supplies improve | The Herald November 10, 2018

Elita Chikwati  Senior Agriculture Reporter

Bread supplies have improved in most parts of the country due to increased flour supplies, the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has said.

Over the past weeks bread has been in short supply and some people had been taking advantage of the situation to hike the price of the basic commodity.

GMAZ chairman Mr Tafadzwa Musarara confirmed that bread supply had improved on the market following the recent wheat deliveries from Beira.

“We have managed to move 75 percent of the wheat that was in Beira,” he said. “It is now here and we are supplying about 650 tonnes of flour every day for bread making out of a requirement of 750 tonnes.

 “So, we are improving. We believe that by November 20, we should be able to supply bakeries their requirements and also produce excess self-raising flour for households. You can see that the availability of bread has improved.”

GMAZ last month suspended the supply of bread and self-raising flour to biscuit and confectionery baking entities to prioritise bread production.

Mr Musarara said millers were working hard to ensure that there would be enough supplies of basic commodities during the festive season.

“We require 45 000 tonnes of bread flour, 10 000 tonnes of salt and 50 000 tonnes of rice to cater for the festive season,” he said.

 Meanwhile, the Grain Marketing Board has so far received 80 000 tonnes of wheat from farmers.

GMB general manager, Mr Rockie Mutenha, confirmed that farmers were delivering their wheat at the parastatal’s depots.

“Farmers are delivering wheat at our depots,” he said.

“The target for wheat deliveries is 135 000 tonnes from the Agritex crop assessment report.”

The country requires 460 000 tonnes of wheat every year.

Wheat production had declined with the country becoming a net importer of the commodity as farmers were no longer interested in growing the crop due to high production costs.

Government had to include wheat under Command Agriculture to progressively increase production to reduce the deficit and ensure national food security.