Local millers will not incur additional costs for importing high-gluten content wheat not produced locally, a Cabinet Minister has confirmed.
The move allays fears that bread prices might go up if millers are charged additional costs for importing wheat under Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025 (SI 87).
The statutory instrument, gazetted under the Agricultural Marketing Authority Act, tightens import regulations on grains, including wheat, to promote local production.
SI 87 introduces a pricing mechanism where grain importers must pay the difference between the landed import parity price and the local production parity to the Agricultural Revolving Fund to support future agricultural financing.
This raised fears that the price of bread might go up as players in the sector pass on the costs to consumers.
However, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Dr Anxious Masuka, has said that wheat not produced locally will not attract additional costs.
According to Minister Masuka, the country is poised to register another record wheat production during the 2025 season, meaning there is no need to import ordinary wheat.
He said that during the current season, cumulatively 518 659 tonnes have been harvested, and this exceeds the “national annual requirement, estimated conservatively at 360 000 tonnes.”
“However, certain millers have indicated that their mills and bread styles require higher gluten content wheat, not achievable from locally produced wheat,” Minister Masuka said in a statement.
“As per current policy, such wheat, not produced locally, will continue to be imported as per previous pronouncements and import application arrangements, without any additional costs,” he added.
The trio of availability, accessibility, and affordability are at the core of the Agriculture, Food Systems, and Rural Transformation Strategy, according to Minister Masuka.
“Government, through the Grain Marketing Board, has availed over 6 518 tonnes in the past weeks to various millers to stabilise supply and ensure seamless availability of appropriate quality wheat,” he stated.
“The current wheat products price stability is partially attributable to this timely intervention. This must continue,” he said.
Minister Masuka said any registered miller, in terms of the Agricultural Marketing Authority Act (Chapter 18:24), can approach the Government for assistance so that the momentum gathered in stabilising the wheat supply and demand is accelerated.
The Minister also took time to “congratulate the 16 362 farmers who produced wheat during the 2025 season, and to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of the various enablers and the productive, inclusive, and participatory whole-of-sector approach adopted since the advent of the Second Republic, which has produced these remarkable achievements in so short a space of time.”
Zimbabwe is only one of two jurisdictions on the African continent that have become wheat self-sufficient, increasing production from a modest volume of 158 515 MT in 2017 to 562 091 MT in 2024. – Herald
