HARARE – The price of bread shot up to $3.50 on Tuesday, the fifth increase this year.
Bread prices rose to $2.30 only on April 12 this month, although the Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe maintained that the official price – negotiated with the government – was $2.
Shoppers were shocked on Tuesday morning when they were confronted with the new prices, on the same day that government employees began receiving an average $129 increase on their salaries.
The fresh increase is connected to the government’s decision last week to raise the producer price of wheat by about 70 percent to $1,089.69.
Compounding the developing crisis is an imminent shortage of wheat after the Grain Millers Association warned last week that Zimbabwe was down to 30 days’ worth of stock, while calling on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to urgently release foreign currency for imports.
Prices of the staple mealie-meal are also set to go up this week as millers absorb an increase in the maize producer price to $726.
