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GRAIN millers have joined the bandwagon of industry sectors pushing Government for protection under Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 as reported in the Herald Business yesterday. However, we take the millers’ request with a pinch of salt. The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development recently announced that the current five-year average on wheat production is around 49 000 tonnes when the country requires at least 365 000 tonnes annually.

As such Zimbabwe remains a net importer with latest figures from Zimstat showing that the country imported wheat worth $51,1 million.

Through their lobby group, the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, millers approached Government seeking an inclusion of all types of wheat under SI64 so that they are subjected to the same import control regime as other products listed under the measure.

According to the millers they seek to halt the continued decline in national bread consumption.

The millers are of the argument that continuation of bread flour imports is self-destructive because current national bread flour demand is less than 25 percent of national installed flour capacity.

They further argued that the advent of latest and improved milling technology and processes local wheat varieties can on its own produce high quality self-raising flour and biscuits flour and that there are adequate imported wheat stocks that are available to complement locally grown wheat.

The millers’ argument appears noble on face value. However, it lacks merit and we call upon the Minister of Industry and Commerce to interrogate the millers’ request before acceding to it.

Flour is part of the bread value chain with wheat being the primary product. And at current output, Zimbabwe does not have capacity yet to control trade to that level.

The best solution in this instance would be for GMAZ to increase its investments in contract farming to ensure that Zimbabwe is able to produce the wheat it requires. The millers talk about safeguarding contract farmers yet statistics show that they are not doing enough to satisfy the country’s requirements.

The minister could also help the nation by demanding details of what the millers are doing to ensure enough production in the country. What financing mechanisms have the millers put in place for contract farming? We want to see the evidence.

It is high time we demanded answers from our industrialists instead of just swallowing hook, line and sinker whatever requests they throw at Government. Some might as well have monopolistic objectives to enable them to dictate prices in the market.

This is not the first time the issue of flour imports is being raised.

Last year in December Herald Business carried an article (Push for flour import ban sucks in Innscor) where most of the players in the bakery industry raised concern over the push to restrict imports as it could only benefit National Foods which has a near monopoly in the flour milling industry.

We trust that the minister will commission an investigation into the merits of the GMAZ request before granting or even turning them down. It would be wrong to offer protection that will backfire on consumers with dangerous consequences.

The food sector is a security issue and should not be approached with emotions. We do not want an attitude that says “you did it for others therefore do it for us” when the fundamentals between economic sectors are totally divergent.

This rent-seeking behaviour should stop and GMAZ should work hand in hand with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that wheat levels improve. That way flour can be available in abundance.