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Zimbabwe faces uphill task in importing food
Njabulo Ncube, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
May 27, 2005

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2005/May/May27/8568.shtml

ZIMBABWE, which is grappling with serious food shortages owing to a devastating drought and lower productivity on the commercial farms, faces an uphill task to raise funds for food imports, the latest report of the US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) reveals.

The report, released on Tuesday this week, said the country would struggle to ship in food as other requirements like fuel and electricity continue to put a strain on limited foreign currency resources.

"The food security problem facing Zimbabwe is of such a magnitude that Zimbabwe will need to import substantial amounts of cereal during the April 2005-March 2006 consumption year to ensure sufficient food is available to all," reads part of the FEWSNET report.

"Given the current shortages, importing adequate food for the nation in the current consumption year is going to be an enormous challenge," the report added.

Zimbabwe consumes 1.8 million tonnes of the staple maize annually.

Only about 662 823 tonnes were delivered to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) during the last selling season, leaving a deficit of 1.2 million tonnes.

The situation has been exacerbated by the shortages of fuel and basic commodities such as sugar and cooking oil.

"The majority of farming households will harvest nothing and are already dependent on the market for all their food requirements at a time when own crop production would normally be their dominant source of food," the report said, adding that price increases continuously drained the meagre disposable incomes of households.

It classified the Zimbabwe situation as an emergence that needed the interventions of the international community, the private sector and the government in Zimbabwe.

However, the government is yet to put out an international appeal for food assistance although the executive director of the World Food Programme, James Morris, is scheduled to meet President Robert Mugabe in Harare next Wednesday .

The US$420 million the country needs to import food includes US$125 million required to meet the 500 000 tonnes for the strategic grain reserves, according to Reserve Bank (RBZ) of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono.

In his 2005 grain mobilisation programme, Gono said due to the seasonality of the country's major foreign currency inflows, he proposed that maize importation be concentrated over the April-October months, which coincide with tobacco inflows. The RBZ has put in place contingent measures to import about 260 000 tonnes at a cost of US$ 75 million.

In its efforts to restock depleted grain silos at the GMB, the sole trader of grain in the country, the government has mandated the ministry of state security to take charge of imports.

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