Zimbabwe’s sugar maker has issued another circular to its stakeholders, informing them of another price increase. From now on the standard 2kg pack of brown sugar will sell for just above $19 instead of around $17. That effectively means a $2 increase.

Just in case you are confused we are not talking about the July sugar price increase here. Prices increases of basic commodities have been going up on such a regular basis now it’s necessary to mention the date when the increase took place otherwise it would be hard to keep track of it all.

The new prices

Mass	Brown Sugar (ZWL)	White Sugar (ZWL)
1KG	9.90	10.40
2KG	19.80	20.40
5KG	49.50	52.00
10KG	99.00	104.00

Available yet unfordable

For the past few weeks, we have noticed that shelves in supermarkets were staked with sugar whereas before the price doubling they used to be empty. It’s a trend we noticed with bread too, suddenly it seems to be available.

This more a case of people not being able to afford basic commodities rather than an improvement in supply. At current prices, even the black market is finding it hard to move these commodities as few people can afford them.