Online Reporter
Nyasha Simbisai Agriculture Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has assured consumers that Bulawayo and surrounding areas have adequate supplies of mealie-meal, dismissing fears of shortages while announcing a review of import levies on maize, soya bean and soya meal to ensure industry continues accessing competitively priced raw materials.
Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Professor Obert Jiri said that maize meal was readily available in Bulawayo, with supplies to retailers remaining stable and prices showing no significant upward movement.
“There is certainly no shortage, and there is an abundance of maize meal in Bulawayo and surrounding areas,” Prof Jiri said.
“If you go to Bulawayo now, you will see a lot of maize meal in the shops. The prices are also very good; they have not increased. The supply is there.”
He said Government was working closely with local grain suppliers and traders serving Bulawayo and had deployed teams to assist in maintaining uninterrupted supplies.
Prof Jiri said the national maize position remained stable, although some pockets of the country recorded poor harvests.
“As Government, we know that there is no shortage of maize grain in the country. Yes, we may have pockets where people literally did not harvest, but in terms of our national stocks and supplying millers, that shortage is not there,” he said.
Government has since May maintained measures designed to prioritise locally produced grain during the harvesting and marketing period, protecting farmers from cheaper imports while encouraging millers and stockfeed manufacturers to source locally.
Prof Jiri said Statutory Instrument 87 had been used to ensure that buying locally remained more competitive than importing during the period when farmers were delivering their produce onto the market.
“SI 87 really encourages local production and also protects the farmers as they harvest,” he said.
However, with commercially available grain on the domestic market gradually declining as the marketing season progresses, Government is adjusting its intervention to ensure industry has continued access to adequate supplies.
Prof Jiri said import levies on maize, soya bean and soya meal would be reviewed from today in response to changing market conditions.
The adjustment is expected to make it easier for millers, stockfeed manufacturers and other private-sector players to supplement local supplies through imports when necessary, while maintaining an appropriate balance between farmer protection and industrial requirements.
“Our purpose as Government is to facilitate the processes of the private sector. When we see that the private sector requires grain and it is becoming difficult for them to procure locally, we then facilitate imports,” Prof Jiri said.
Government continuously monitors grain sales and supply trends across the country to determine when interventions such as import permits and levy adjustments become necessary.
“The levy review is intended to facilitate access by the private sector to appropriately priced and available grain,” Prof Jiri said.
He said calls from industry for the relaxation of import measures were relatively subdued in May and June when locally available supplies were still significant, but increased towards the end of
July and throughout August as commercial stocks on the open market declined.
Government reviews the levies periodically to respond to prevailing market conditions without undermining local producers.
Prof Jiri said the approach sought to strike a balance between safeguarding farmers who require viable markets for their produce and ensuring millers and other processors have sufficient raw materials to maintain production and stable consumer supplies.
The intervention is also expected to help maintain mealie-meal availability and price stability as Government, grain traders, millers and other private-sector players coordinate supplies across the country.
Government maintains that the evolving grain import framework is therefore not a response to a national shortage, but a market-management measure aimed at complementing domestic stocks as commercially available local supplies decline.
