Zimbabweans become hunters and gatherers

Now an informal trader, he has become something of a hunter and gatherer: every morning at 7 o'clock, he's out on the streets, looking for scarce goods that he stocks at home, but only to resell later. He has developed a list of crucial contacts, better known as “connections”, in most of the retail shops; these keep some of the scarce – and cheap – basics for him in return for “kickbacks”.

It's what keeps him and his family going: when he buys local cooking oil, for example, which retails at prices discounted by at least five times that of imported cooking oil on supermarket shelves, he stocks the cooking oil at home.

Goods stocked at home are resold after “gaining value” – prices are moving up so fast that a bar of soap bought for Z$5m today can retail for Z$55m after a week.

“By the time I sell the goods, even after a week, the prices would have gone up considerably. It's far better than keeping the Zimbabwe dollar,” Manyaradzwa, whose list of most wanted products include cooking oil, maize-meal and sugar, says.

Speculative shopping

Manyaradzwa is not alone in the crisis-torn economy, now in its ninth year of a recession … Widespread shortages, mainly of basic commodities, have turned Zimbabweans into supermarket hunters, buying and stocking products for resale as they battle to evade the erosion in value of the local currency.

Prices increase almost on a daily basis; independent economists reckon inflation breached 200,000% in February. The latest official statistics indicated that inflation was above 100,000% in December 2007 – and serious shortages have compounded the problem, as has the government's propensity for printing money to finance a ballooning budget deficit.

Scrambling for bargains

When bread supplies arrive, desperate shoppers lunge at the bread shelves, pushing and shoving, others grabbing two loaves each, others three, four, five, six… “I'll keep the others in the fridge,” shouts one customer, clutching a basket with six loaves.

“What do you want me to do with the Zimbabwe dollar if I don't buy the bread,” she retorts to a customer demanding why she can take just enough for her family so that others can also buy the bread.

Bread is one of the few price-controlled products, so bakers are not producing enough for the market because of losses. Other price-controlled products include cooking oil, salt, sugar, milk, margarine and maize-meal, used to cook the staple food in most Zimbabwean homes.

When a retailer gets deliveries of these scarce products, there is always a stampede, because even with price controls, those securing them can still resell at a profit.

Battleground

Last week prices skyrocketed by unprecedented margins as the buying frenzy intensified ahead of the up-coming elections.

Petrol jumped from around $25m per litre to $50m, and bread and other basic commodities went up by 150% or more in a desperate bid by government to boost supplies.

In the space of a week, a two-litre bottle of cooking oil went from around $70m to over $250m, while a 2kg pocket of rice went from $40m to $90m.

One dealer said demand for “almost everything” had increased; people desperate to dispose of their Zimbabwe dollars are quickly switching to liquid assets before the elections, fearing its outcome could plunge the country into a political crisis.

Should the incumbent regime win the elections, inflation would maintain its upward trajectory, further devastating the beleaguered economy.

The two opposition presidential candidates have anchored their campaigns around the issue of the economy, with key issues hinging around prices, job creation and, as Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC puts it, “a bright future” for the people.

Domestic currency under turmoil

Manufacturers say the pressure on prices is not only emanating from rising inflation, but also from the fall of the Zimbabwe dollar on a thriving but illegal parallel market from which the majority of companies are sourcing their foreign currency to import critical inputs.

The companies are competing for the foreign cash with individuals, who are also desperate to reduce their exposure to the Zimbabwe dollar. Parallel foreign currency dealers said demand for foreign cash was “always overwhelming”.

Inflation has made it unattractive to hold the local currency when costs of goods and services are increasing on a daily basis so people are spending their little incomes as fast as they can on goods rather than save.