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A senior Tanzanian government official stated that Tanzania will sell 650,000 tonnes of maize to Zambia, in a deal intended to help the southern African country reduce food shortages caused by a prolonged drought. Tanzanian Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said the two countries had signed an agreement on supplying the grain, expected to feed about 7 million people in Zambia.
A senior Tanzanian government official stated that Tanzania will sell 650,000 tonnes of maize to Zambia, in a deal intended to help the southern African country reduce food shortages caused by a prolonged drought. Tanzanian Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said the two countries had signed an agreement on supplying the grain, expected to feed about 7 million people in Zambia. Zambia is in the grip of a drought that has reduced food production and lowered power generation, pushing the government to import food from neighbouring countries. The minister stated that the agreement would be implemented within eight months and help Tanzania earn USD 250 million. The agreement was signed by Andrew Komba, the director general of Tanzania’s state-owned National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), and Zambia’s national disaster coordinator, Gabriel Pollen. Bashe said the maize consignment will be supplied from four NFRA warehouses in the southwest of the country.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/namibia-to-import-n-1-bn-worth-maize-due-to-drought/
Tanzania is one of the largest producers of grains and cereals such as rice and maize in East Africa, a significant amount of which is exported to regional markets. According to the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, the country expects a bumper harvest, and the surplus will exceed the preliminary demand assessment of maize, with more than 1.2 million tonnes estimated for export markets in neighbouring countries.
