HARARE – Bakers have hiked the price of bread, blaming the government for failing to provide foreign currency to finance wheat imports.
Over the weekend, retailers adjusted the price of bread from $1,40 to $2,50.
Blaming a shortage of wheat, Lobels has cut production by 50 percent and sent some workers home. Company bosses have warned employees they might get half-pay for the month of February.
The government subsidises the price of bread by financing wheat imports in hard currency, which bakers buy in bond notes. Bakers then sell bread in bond notes, whose value has crashed against the United States dollar despite the government insisting the rate is 1:1.
National Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe president, Ngoni Mazango, said: “The government has promised us an intervention on foreign currency which we require as bakers which was going to account for 80 percent of our forex requirements but in the month of November we only received 30 percent of the 80 percent.
“In December we received 27 percent of the 80 percent and this January we received 9 percent.
“Bakers are saying they don’t have money to pay for wheat. We hope that the government will address the issue as soon as possible before we run out of bread completely.”
