[Debate] (Fwd) Doubling of maize price: tough crit of ANC neoliberalism - from the DA!

[Patrick Bond]

(Yes, the logic of GEAR - always supported by the DA - is poverty and 
starvation: */"Maize prices currently cost the local consumer roughly 
R2,600 a tonne, around double the price of one year ago. The price is 
expected to cross the R3,000 threshold within days. This is as a result 
of cheaply exporting maize at R1,400 a tonne to overseas consumers.")/*


  Maize prices have doubled - Lourie Bosman

Lourie Bosman
12 January 2012

DA MP says shortsighted export scheme is to blame

*Maize shortages hurt the poor: DA calls for review of export regulatory 
framework*

Avoidable maize shortages - through shortsighted export arrangements - 
have pushed maize prices to record highs. This is having a devastating 
effect on the poor as it undermines South Africa's food security and 
pushes up the cost of goods.

As it stands, there is no more locally produced maize because it has all 
been cheaply exported, leading to a reliance on expensive imported maize.

I have today written to the Minister of Agriculture requesting that she 
review the regulatory framework that governs maize exports. Any such 
undertaking must be done in consultation with grain producers.

Maize prices currently cost the local consumer roughly R2,600 a tonne, 
around double the price of one year ago. The price is expected to cross 
the R3,000 threshold within days. This is as a result of cheaply 
exporting maize at R1,400 a tonne to overseas consumers.

The maize shortage and consequential increase in the local maize price 
is placing a crushing burden on poor families.

Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has dismissed these concerns as a simple 
result of 'market dynamics'. This assessment is both hollow and 
superficial. We are strongly in favour of promoting an efficient and 
globally competitive maize industry. However, a strange obsession with 
exports at the expense of local food security is hard to understand. The 
broader transaction costs of resulting food price inflation render the 
practice economically senseless.

While official CPI data indicates an inflation rate of around 5%, the 
true figure for the majority of citizens is much higher. Food costs 
constitute the largest portion of most South Africans' budget, and maize 
is a significant component of that food cost. 100% inflation in the 
maize price has a real effect on real people that is simply not captured 
by official data.

Government must take the lead in implementing a fair mechanism that 
requires grain exporters to indicate how much grain will leave the 
country before the transaction is carried out. We must not undermine the 
livelihoods of farmers and farm workers, but we cannot allow people to 
go hungry either.

/Statement issued by Lourie Bosman MP//, DA Shadow Minister of 
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, January 12 2012/


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