STATE MEDIA– Subsidised roller meal is being diverted to the black market by buyers who grab consignments as they reach the shop shelves.
The buyers then offload the roller meal to informal traders who often repack it into smaller bags, with these two sets of middlemen more than doubling the $50 price of the original 10kg bag.
In addition, black market informal traders demand cash only, which many needing mealie-meal have to get from another set of informal traders, mobile money vendors, who gouge a premium of between 25 percent and 35 percent.
This comes amid concerns that some people were panic-buying the roller meal in the face of shortages.
The Government is fighting back by increasing supplies, with a freer flow of maize-meal expected from next week.
It will work with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) to monitor shopkeepers to ensure the maize-meal is distributed fairly and that shops take precautions to stop the middlemen from grabbing bulk of deliveries.
It is understood that many of the “professional buyers” have connections to retailers who sell it as it arrives.
The middlemen take it to the parallel market and sell the full 10kg packets, or repackage into anything from 500g, popularly known as “tsaona” (emergency), to 5kg.
A 10kg pack of roller meal is then sold, for cash, for between $75 and $110, while 5kg is sold for $55, a 2kg pack costs $15, while 500g costs $9.
Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza yesterday assured consumers that supplies of the subsidised roller meal will soon improve.
“During the course of the holidays, there were some challenges where some companies failed to deliver, which induced panic-buying and hoarding,” she said. “However, this has since been resolved as Government is augmenting local production with maize grain imports.
“As of yesterday, the ministry verified with GMB that maize grain is available. The import deliveries have been coming on a daily basis and are expected to alleviate the mealie-meal shortage.”
Minister Nzenza said her ministry was working with CZR, which has promised to institute measures to at protect consumers.
“The president of CZR Mr (Denford) Mutashu has assured that in order to protect the consumer, they are monitoring the retail shops so that mealie-meal is not only available, but is also sold at the subsidised price of $50 per 10kg and is distributed to all Zimbabweans fairly,” she said.
Mr Mutashu said the supply of roller meal remained constrained, but millers had assured retailers that supplies would improve next week.
“Current supply is still constrained as millers require more maize to meet demand, but I have just had a meeting with the millers and they have assured me that from next week, there will be mealie meal in the supermarkets,” said Mr Mutashu.
The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) said it was using “free funds” and had since procured 50 000 tonnes of maize from South Africa.
A consignment is expected to arrive next week.
“This is to complement what GMB has and we are also going to prioritise roller meal production from the privately sourced maize,” said GMAZ spokesperson Mr Garikai Chaunza.
Efforts to get the list of millers working with Government were fruitless.
The subsidy is handled by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which deals with individual grain millers.
Under the new subsidy scheme, maize is sold at market prices, but the subsidy is paid to millers who have to prove that the roller meal has been milled and delivered.
-State Media