Zimbabwe’s government plans to boost maize imports as adverse weather slashes the southern African nation’s harvest.
The Grain Marketing Board will float an international tender to import 750 000 tons of the grain, Joseph Gondo, chief director of Zimbabwe’s agriculture ministry, said. Gondo declined to provide a timeframe for the tender, though he said the paperwork has been completed.
That amount would mark Zimbabwe’s largest corn imports in a season in three years, according to data. The last massive import of grain by the country was in 2016 ahead of the 2018 elections where grain distribution was used as a vote buying strategy by the ruling ZANU PF party in the rural areas.
The import needs comes shortly after government had assured the nation that it had enough grain reserves to see the country through to the next rains.
Recently, the Secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Mr Ringson Chitsiko, said Zimbabwe has not imported any major grains such as maize for the past two years.
He said as at December last year, the country had 1 179 156 tonnes of maize, which is twice the mandatory Strategic Grain Reserve of 500 000 tonnes.
Small grains amounted to 135 935 tonnes.
“The nation is comfortable since the surplus is enough to see us through at least nine months. This means the supply of the staple diet in the country is out of danger,” Mr Chitsiko.
The latest import also comes amid surging global corn prices as relentless rains roil US grain plantings, signaling rising costs for importers.
Zimbabwe’s corn crop is expected to plummet 54% this year amid drought and after Cyclone Idai damaged crops in some provinces, according to the Agriculture Ministry. In March, a government official said the nation had seven months of grain reserves, including corn, and must begin imports to offset a potential deficit.
Neighboring nations, including SA, have also seen harvests curbed by dryness. The bulk of the country’s corn use is for human consumption, mainly from white corn. That signals that Mexico and the US may be among the suppliers in the tender, said Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at South Africa’s Agricultural Business Chamber. South Africa may have some grain available, and Ukraine could be a supplier if the nation sources yellow corn, he said.