Some business operators are unable to import wheat due to the shortage of foreign currency in the national financial market. If the problem continues, the private sector predicts the closure of some businesses.
The alarm is beginning to sound from the private sector, reporting on the possible impacts caused by the lack of foreign currency, especially the dollar, in the national financial market.
O País spoke to President of the Mozambican Bakers Association (AMOPAO) Vitor Miguel, who revealed that he had received notification from mills complaining about difficulties in importing raw materials.
Miguel explained that, according to the letter received, the mill, which may be one of many in crisis, argues that the situation “may result in a lack of their raw material, which is grain, and lead to their closure. If the mills have in fact closed, this will obviously have a huge impact on us, the end consumer, so we will naturally have difficulties in terms of production if we do not actually receive wheat flour”.
O País has learned that the letter in question was also sent to the Ministry of Economy.
Vítor Miguel fears turbulent times in the future. “It is difficult because we do not have internal resources, so there is no internal production of wheat, wheat always comes from abroad and naturally if the grain does not enter Mozambique, we will have a huge crisis in production, and there may in fact be a shortage of bread,” he said.
The shortage of foreign currency does not only affect the bakery sector, as Executive Director of the CTA, Eduardo Sengo, explained.
“The sectors most affected, particularly the food industry, with regard to the import of various raw materials, include travel, tourism, and obviously trade itself, because many products are imported. For example, the import of products such as rice has been greatly affected. And recently, the fuel sector has also been warned that this could affect the fuel sector as well,” he said.
Sengo says that the problem is much older, that the central bank is fully aware of it, and that there have even been proposals for improvements.
“One of the first things that needs to be done is that in the short term, export control measures must be implemented, so that export revenue can actually be repatriated to the country and thus be made available so that the market has liquidity abroad. There is a tendency for exporters to retain revenue when they arrive here in Mozambique, when they arrive in the country, instead of selling dollars, selling euros to the market, feeding the market, they prefer to retain it until a very specific situation arises that forces them to sell.”
However, in a press conference last week, the governor of the central bank has denied that there was a lack of liquidity.
“We assess, as we always do, not only for the CPO, we assess liquidity on a daily basis. And I can say with absolute certainty that at this moment we are comfortable with the level of liquidity that exists in the system. There is no need to touch the existing liquidity, messing with the mandatory reserves, so we will maintain it,” Rogério Zandamela argued.
Eduardo Sengo listened to Zandamela’s statements.
“If the central bank sees that there is currency in the market, there is sufficient liquidity to deal with the situation, with the demand that is emerging from companies, then it has to understand the commercial banks, what is happening for this liquidity not to flow. Could it be due to the behaviour of the currency determinants, particularly of exporters? If so, then what measures should we take? We know that, in part, this could also be the case. Could it be because we have numbers in the economy, but what is reflected in the real sector are not those numbers? What is the problem?” Sengo asks, challenging the search for solutions.
Businesspeople told the President of the Republic during his visit to Nampula province last week that they were facing a shortage of foreign currency. Daniel Chapo promised to seek solutions with the Bank of Mozambique and commercial banks.
The CTA says that if the situation continues, many businesses could close their doors.
Source: O País
