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Zim bans cattle auction
31/08/2007 12:03 - (SA)
Angus Shaw
Harare - Authorities banned a public livestock auction at Zimbabwe's main agriculture show on Thursday, fearing it would make a mockery of price controls on beef that had forced meat off the shelves across the country, said show officials and farmers.
Farmers expected to get the market value of at least double the government's price on commercial prime beef per kilogram and up to five times the fixed price on peasant-raised cows.
The government had waived its fixed price on cattle for the long-awaited auction of about 160 animals, which was widely publicized in state media as one of the main attractions of the annual Harare Agricultural Show.
Show officials said they were notified at the last minute that the auction would not be allowed to go ahead. Most of the cattle were from peasant farms within about 100km of the showground arena.
'Things are getting better'
Freddy Vera, a small-scale farmer, said: "We have been tricked. We have brought our cattle here to make it look good for the politicians. It is to pretend things are getting better."
The livestock exhibit that included pigs, sheep, guinea fowl and chickens, was the biggest for several years. President Robert Mugabe had a dozen cattle on show from his Gushungo farm in his home district in Zvimba, 50km southwest of Harare.
The show chose an official theme this year on the revival of farming after seven years of political and economic turmoil following the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000 and disrupted the agriculture-based economy.
Vera said some of the livestock exhibitors borrowed money for stock feed for standard fattening of their animals after the price waiver for the exhibit and auction was announced.
Govt orders price reductions
Buyers from hotels and restaurants planned to start bidding for top grade meat at double the price paid to farmers by the state slaughter monopoly of about $8.50 at the official exchange rate, or $55 cents at the dominant black market rate, said show officials.
One rancher who asked not to be identified said the authorities "don't want it shown what cattle are really worth and why there's no meat out there".
Village cattle would likely have fetched bids of five times the government price in the meat-starved nation, he said.
In June, the government ordered price reductions of about half on all goods and services in a bid to tame official inflation of 7 634%, the highest in the world.
Independent estimates put real inflation at closer to 25 000%, and the International Monetary Funds had forecast it reaching 100 000% by the end of the year.
Cornmeal, bread, meat, milk, eggs and other staples had disappeared from stores and supermarkets and acute shortages had fuelled a thriving black market in scarce foodstuffs, often selling at more than five times official prices.
- AP
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