The price of mealie-meal has been silently raised as can be observed in all shops from our recent survey. While a 10kg of Red Seal roller meal (one of the cheaper brands) was selling for around $24 last week, it is now going for more than $30.

Some brands such as Continental Roller meal are now going for around $32 for a 10kg sack. This was selling for around $27 last week. The $31+ was refined mealie-meal territory occupied by brands such as Red Seal Parlenta and Ngwerewere last week.

This week refined meal 10kgs are selling $10 higher on average. Continental Refined meal was going for $43.50 in the Choppies branch at corner R. Mugabe and Cameroon.

The mystery of the disappearing mealie-meal

So last week we observed that most of the supermarkets in Harare CBD were running low on mealie-meal. A lot of shelves did not have the standard 10kg roller meal sacks from popular brands such as Silo and Red Seal.

The remaining brands were selling for higher than normal prices. In wholesale shops like Mahommed Mussa that had Red Seal it was selling above the $24 mark it had been selling for in supermarkets before disappearing.

We are glad that supermarkets are stacking up given that maize meal is a staple in this country. Sadly, it’s not just fuel that seems to have gone up during the holiday weekend. Supermarkets seem to have just silently hiked the price of mealie-meal too.