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By Tendai Maphosa
Harare
20 September 2006
Bread shelves in most Zimbabwean shops were empty Tuesday as bakers1 scaled down production.
Zimbabwean man walks past empty bread shelves in central Harare, September 20, 2006 |
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The government responded by arresting the executive of one of the country's leading bakeries. A baker's association spokesman told VOA Monday that other top bakery managers had gone into hiding for fear of arrest.
Burombo Mudumo the chairman of the National Bakers Association told the state-controlled daily newspaper, The Herald3, that there is very little flour in the country and bakers were trying to stretch the available flour as far as possible.
Zimbabwe does not produce enough wheat to meet its needs. Production has been further affected4 by President Robert Mugabe's sometimes-violent land reform program launched in 2000. The country does not have enough foreign currency to import wheat to plug the deficit5.
A bakers' association official told VOA on condition of anonymity6 that his association since last year made numerous approaches to the government for a review of bread prices. He says the government has not responded. He blamed Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary environment for the increase. Inflation stands at more than 1,200 percent.
A visit to some bakeries in Harare revealed empty bread shelves, but a glut7 of other products on which there is no price controls such as fancy bread loaves and rolls.
For a majority of Zimbabweans, these are prices well out of reach with an estimated 80 percent of the country's workforce8 unemployed9 and the majority of those with jobs earning salaries way below the poverty line.
In a separate development internet traffic through the country's biggest international link, which is controlled by the state telecommunications company, TelOne, has been cut off as the company has failed to settle a debt of $700,000. Internet companies that route most of their traffic through TelOne are the worst affected but traffic on all providers has been slower than normal for the past week.
1 bakers | |
n.面包师( baker的名词复数 );面包店;面包店店主;十三 | |
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2 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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3 herald | |
vt.预示...的来临,预告,宣布,欢迎 | |
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4 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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5 deficit | |
n.亏空,亏损;赤字,逆差 | |
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6 anonymity | |
n.the condition of being anonymous | |
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7 glut | |
n.存货过多,供过于求;v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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8 workforce | |
n.劳动大军,劳动力 | |
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9 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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