MAIZE MILLING, MARKET REFORM AND URBAN FOOD SECURITY - THE CASE OF ZIMBABWE

Government policy in much of Eastern and Southern Africa has encourage d the development of highly centralized, large-scale milling facilitie s, which has in turn promoted the consumption of highly refined and ex pensive maize meal compared to that produced by small-scale hammer mil ls. Policies to develop competitive small-scale milling facilities in urban areas are apparently neglected because of the conventional perce ption in Eastern and Southern Africa that urban consumers strongly pre fer the refined, industrially milled meals, and are not responsive to price differences between various types of maize meals. Results of con sumer and miller surveys in Zimbabwe call into question the validity o f these perceptions. Simulation analysis also indicates that the elimi nation of policy constraints that block small-scale millers' access to grain would reduce overall marketing costs, thereby allowing higher p roducer prices, lower consumer prices and/or lower government subsidie s. The case of Zimbabwe suggests that market reform may considerably r educe the magnitude of the tradeoff between governments' food security and budget minimization objectives.