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Zambia is in talks with Uganda for a possible supply of more than 500,000 metric tonnes of maize to replenish its depleted reserves. The short supply of maize has exposed more than two million people to starvation, it is reported
Zambia banned the exports of maize grain and flour since February, following a prolonged dry spell. The drought adversely impacted the production of the crop in 84 out of the country’s 116 districts.
Zambia, the second largest maize-producing nation in Southern Africa after South Africa, declared drought a national disaster in February and introduced a state of emergency. Zambia is in talks with Uganda for a possible supply of more than 500,000 metric tonnes of maize to replenish its depleted reserves. The short supply of maize has exposed more than two million people to starvation, it is reported.
The Government of Uganda has received an expression of interest for up to 500,000 MT of maize grain to be exported to Zambia. The southern African country’s vulnerability assessment report (2023) projects over two million people to be food insecure spanning the period October 2023 to March 2024.
This has put pressure on South Africa to supply its neighboring countries with maize even when its prospects do not look promising. Last year Zambia turned down a proposal to supply maize to Kenya even as Kenya’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi hinted that a memorandum of understanding had been signed, contracting Zambian farmers to grow maize exclusively for the Kenyan market.
Kenya has sourced most of its imported maize from Tanzania, however, traders have had difficulty exporting the grain from Tanzania following the implementation of new export procedures by the Tanzanian Authorities. As a result, Kenyan traders started sourcing more of the grain from non-traditional sources such as Zambia and South Africa.
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According to the US Department for Agriculture (USDA), Kenyan traders imported maize from Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa in 2023 but imports from Tanzania declined as a result of the imposition of export restrictions by the Tanzania authorities. Kenya’s maize imports from Tanzania contracted to 63 percent of the total maize imports in the 2022-23 marketing year from 97 percent in 2021-22 marketing year, while that from Zambia and South Africa increased to 13 percent and 10 percent from one percent and 0.38 percent respectively.
On the other hand, imports from Zambia increased by more than eightfold to 88,050 tonnes from 10,728 tonnes, while imports from South Africa increased by 2,218.94 percent to 64,513 tonnes from 2,782 tonnes.
Zambia’s production of maize for grain was projected at 3.26 million metric tonnes (Mt) in the 2022-23 agricultural season representing a 23 percent increase from 2.65 million produced in the 2021- 22 agricultural season, but this output remains low compared to the five-year average.
