Crowds besiege food store

HARARE - Police were forced to guard the doors to prevent the shop from being swamped by the swelling crowd after the store received its first delivery of maize for several days.

Supermarket managers said most shops received their last deliveries a month ago.
Police allowed small groups of people inside the store at a time, and rationed each person to one 10kg bag of maize meal, about a three-day's supply for an average family of four.

Earlier this week, the state Grain Marketing Board said the first trains and trucks carrying emergency grain bought from neighbouring South Africa began arriving at the border town of Beit Bridge.

The GMB said 200,000 tons of mostly maize was now being imported to make up for shortfalls in domestic production.

There was "no need to panic", said retired Colonel Samuel Muvuti, the Board's acting CEO. Unprocessed maize was being imported and would be milled and distributed from provincial centres across the country.

Article courtesy of The Zimbabwean