HARARE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Some of the Zimbabwean bond notes that have disappeared from the market are allegedly being used to pay Zimbabwean farmers who smuggle cotton into neighboring Mozambique in search of cash, investigations by a local newspaper have established.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced bond coins and notes between 2014 and 2016 to ease cash shortages, but the notes have hardly been enough and circulation remained curtailed as the central bank urged the public to migrate to plastic money.
The surrogate currency, which trades at 1:1 with the U.S. dollar, was supported by a 200-million-dollar export incentive facility guaranteed by Afreximbank.
There have also been reports that some of the bond notes have been smuggled across the borders for sale to people travelling into the country who do not want to experience cash shortages.
Herald Business reported Friday that farmers in northeastern Zimbabwe were smuggling cotton that had been grown under contract to a company in Mozambique which was paying them in dollars, bond notes and Mozambican metical.
The farmers said that they had opted for the Mozambican market due to cash problems in Zimbabwe where mobile money platforms were no longer reliable because of the cash shortages and poor network connectivity.
"So we were left with no option but to sell to Mozambique because we are paid cash," one farmer told the paper.
Headman of in Marara Village in Mozambique Peter Antonio confirmed that he helped the farmers smuggle cotton through his village.
"I have facilitated smuggling of cotton to Mozambique because farmers (prefer) to deliver their produce to Mozambique where they are getting hard cash," he said.
Cash shortages have resulted in the prices of a number of basic commodities going up and the illegal imposition of a three-tier system where prices vary depending on the type of transaction made.
Those who pay using dollars pay less than those who use bond notes, with those using plastic money having to fork out more.
RBZ said recently that it would come up with a new 300-million-dollar facility to support the introduction of new bond notes so as to ease cash shortages.
