“Flour supplies remain critically low and it is therefore prudent that the available wheat stocks be maximised towards food security in respect of improving bread flour supplies and self-raising flour for home baking nationwide‚” an association statement read.
The cash crisis‚ on the other hand‚ has presented an advantage for Zambians‚ Malawians and Congolese who have easy access to the US dollar that has been pushed out of the market by bond notes. This because government insists that the bond notes are of the same value as the American dollar. When on the ground‚ the American dollar is worth more than 130 percent of the bond notes. As such‚ Zambians and Malawians in border towns now shop in Zimbabwe.
“They change hard currency into bond notes on the black market and that gives them more than a hundred percent more buying power. It becomes cheaper for them to buy in Zimbabwe than in Zambia‚” said a shop owner.
The biggest winners are truck drivers that move from South Africa right up to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They now buy fuel in Zimbabwe using bond notes instead of hard currencies.
“It works out cheaper. Diesel is selling for $1.34 and if I take that $1.34 and buy bond notes‚ instead of a litre of diesel‚ I get 2 litres‚” said a truck driver with Real Logistics.
On Monday‚ presenting his fiscal policy‚ Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya said that‚ with immediate effect‚ truckers should buy fuel with hard currency and shoppers – whom he referred to as cross-border traders – should also stop “rent-seeking behaviour”.