Agency Report/
Zimbabwe could run out of bread in a week after flour stocks dwindled due to the country’s failure to pay for imported wheat, according to a confidential letter written to bakers by the country’s grain millers’ group on Monday.
The country is in the grip of a severe shortage of U.S. dollars that has sapped supplies of fuel and drugs, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa struggles to live up to pre-election promises to quickly revive the troubled economy.
Zimbabwe imports wheat, which it blends with its local crop to make flour for bread, the country’s second major staple after maize meal.
The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) general manager Lynette Veremu wrote to the National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) to tell them the country has not paid for 55,000 tonnes of wheat in bonded warehouses in Mozambique and Harare.
“We regret to advise that the current stocks for foreign wheat for bread flour have depleted to 5,800 tonnes and … we are left with less than eight days of national bread flour supplies,” the letter said.
GMAZ spokesman Garikai Chaunza confirmed the letter, saying “this is the situation we are faced with”.
Ngoni Mazango, the president of the bakers’ group, was not immediately available to comment.
The central bank lists wheat among priority imports like fuel and drugs, but has struggled to pay suppliers in the past. GMAZ said in December it owed foreign suppliers $80 million for past wheat imports.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya did not answer calls to his mobile phone.
*NAN
0Femi Ashekun/ Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, has declared that he wouldn’t resign if President-elect…
Segun Atanda/ The Nigerian government has responded to Malaysia's recent announcement to phase out compressed…
Matilda Omonaiye/ The police in Lagos have arrested Salisu Mustapha, the owner of three dogs…
Dipo Kehinde/ As the news broke, many around the world struggled to understand how a…
Editor/ Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, marking a surprising…
Pat Stevens/ Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, is dead. He reportedly died…