Zambia's state Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has exported 28,000 tonnes of white maize to Zimbabwe and will soon export an additional 54,400 tonnes to southern African countries, a senior industry official said.
FRA Marketing Manager Emmanuel Ngulube said the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Zimbabwe purchased the 28,000 tonne maize from Zambia for distribution to hungry people.
Ngulube said the bulk of its exports would go to Malawi, Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which have in recent weeks asked for huge maize purchases from Zambia.
"We have exported 28,000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe while private companies in Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, Angola and Kenya want to buy maize from Zambia," he told journalists from state media late on Sunday.
Ngulube said the FRA was exporting the maize at $180 per tonne and that the proceeds would be used to buy more maize from Zambian farmers.
A senior FRA official separately told Reuters the FRA had initially budgeted to purchase 67,000 tonnes from farmers after the government released the initial 10 billion Kawasho of the 47 billion Kawasho ($9.89 million) earmarked for maize purchases in 2004.
Agriculture and Co-operatives Minister Minder Sakata said In July that Malawi wanted to import 150,000 tonnes of Zambian maize, while Angola had asked for 500,000 tonnes. Sakata said no decision had been made on whether Zambia could export that much grain.
Zambia's export credentials are impressive given it and five other southern African countries faced severe food shortages in 2002/03 that hit more than 14 million.
Zambia produced 1.2 million tonnes maize in 2002/03 season, but government officials say the 2003/04-harvested crop would total more than 1.5 million tonnes.
Comments
Comments are closed.