WANDILE SIHLOBO: Zimbabwe may need SA maize this year — but it needs our farming skills too
SA could export maize to any lucrative market, including Zimbabwe, but the country also has foreign currency liquidity problems...
This is a difficult year for Zimbabweans. Aside from the government’s recent decision to increase fuel prices, which led to a widespread resistance, Zimbabwe is likely to experience maize shortage later in the year, which would also result in an increase in food prices. Farmers in most regions of the country experienced dryness at the beginning of the production season, which negatively affected crops. As a result, production of Zimbabwe’s staple food crop, maize, could decline by 45% year-on-year in the 2018-2019 marketing year to 1.2-million tonnes. This is according to data from the International Grains Council. Given that Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption roughly varies between 1.8-million and 2-million tonnes, the country will have to import roughly 800,000 tonnes to fulfil the domestic demand. This is under the assumption that the opening stocks will be at roughly 459,000 tonnes, according to estimates from the US department of agriculture. If this is the situation, where Zi...
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