The government is mulling plans to subsidise cooking oil, salt, bread and soap, following a similar decision on mealie meal in December 2019.
This was said by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday while leading a National Clean-up Campaign in Kuwadzana. Speaking about the prospect of a severe famine due to prolonged drought, Mnangagwa said:
If rains fail us for the third season in a row, then we will experience a serious drought.
Money that was meant to be used for development is now being used to import grain from Mexico, Ukraine and South Africa.
With the difficulty of things now, the industry is looking at adding cooking oil, salt, bread and soap to the list of subsidised items for consumers.
In December last year, the government directed retailers to sell roller meal for $50 per 10kg bag after it had promised to provide grain millers with subsided maize.
The price of mealie meal per 10 kg bag had shot to over $100.00 before the directive was issued. Meanwhile, the subsided mealie meal remains very scarce on the market.