Nando Times

Economic crisis prompts food shortage worries in Zimbabwe

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (October 20, 2000 6:12 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Following three days of food riots, a farmers group said Friday that economic disruptions likely will slice production of corn, the nation's staple food, by at least one-third.

The statement came in a nation facing political upheaval and its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980.

White farmers, who produce about 40 percent of the corn crop here, estimated their harvests will drop by more than half in the first six months next year, the Zimbabwe Grain Producers Association said. The expected overall shortfall of corn harvested from March to June is about 35 percent, the farmers said in a statement.

About 4,000 whites own one-third of Zimbabwe's fertile farmland, where 2 million farm workers and their family members live. About 7.5 million people live on the other two-thirds. Beginning last winter, violent squatters and ruling party militants illegally occupied 1,700 white-owned farms. The government declined to force the squatters off and proceeded to put forward a land-reform blueprint of its own: It plans to take over 3,000 white-owned farms and divide them into plots for landless blacks.

Opposition leaders have said the reform plan is a ploy by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party to curry favor among Zimbabwe's impoverished voters; Mugabe says it is his government's move to end the land inequity here.

Regardless, the conflict has added to the country's economic crisis:

The corn shortfall will force the country to import food, the farmers said. Zimbabwe already suffers from a hard currency deficit that has caused acute shortages of gasoline and other essential imports.

Price increases of up to 30 percent on bread, sugar and soft drinks triggered three days of food riots starting Monday in Harare's poorest suburbs. The protesters looted grocery stores and bakery trucks and trashed cars and buses. The price hikes were the latest in a series increases in the cost of corn, milk and gasoline.

The state oil procurement monopoly, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, said Thursday it had only $10 million available for fuel imports this month, a quarter of what it needs to meet the monthly fuel demand.

Land occupations since February, farm confiscations and political violence have already cut tobacco production by a quarter. Tobacco is the nation's biggest hard currency earner.

Mining production and tourism, the next main foreign currency earners, have dropped sharply and investment and foreign aid have dried up.

No government comment was available.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), October 20, 2000