Glitch leaves Zimbabwe facing record wheat imports
14:38 UK, 20th July 2011
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Southern Africa, faces its biggest wheat
imports on record after bureaucratic hiccups fuelled a drop in sowings to
their lowest levels since the 1960s.
The country’s wheat production, which reached 325,000 tonnes a decade ago,
is set to come in at 12,000 tonnes in 2011-12, US Department of Agriculture
attaches said.
The decline reflects in part a switch to corn, for which output looks like
reaching a 10-year high of 1.4m tonnes, boosted by ample supplies of seed
and a relaxation of imports curbs on fertilizer, for which the crop has
particularly high needs.
The relaxation in nutrient buy-ins spared Zimbabwe a squeeze on ammonium
nitrate supplies after the only domestic producer “failed to meet local
requirements because of constraints of power outages and constant equipment
breakdowns”.
While the country’s economy has, thanks to a policy of replacing the
Zimbabwe dollar with the US one, shown signs of recovering from an era of
hyperinflation, its infrastructure remains run-down, necessitating power
cuts of up to 18 hours a day.
Distribution problem
However, the fall-off in wheat prospects also reflects the failure of a $10m
programme announced by the government in March to support wheat sowings
through subsidising seed and fertilizer purchases, in a programme run by the
state’s Grain Marketing Board.
“The disbursement of inputs to Grain Marketing Board depots was delayed, and
the majority of farmers did not have access to inputs during the recommended
planting period,” which ended in mid-May, the USDA attaches said.
They estimated Zimbabwe’s farmers harvesting 6,000 hectares of wheat this
year, half last year’s levels, and the lowest since 1967-68.
With production also tumbling imports were set to rise 12% year on year to a
record 280,000 tonnes.
The country relies on South Africa for the bulk of its wheat imports, with
Germany, Lithuania and the US also major providers over the past year.
South African rebound
The attaché estimates came shortly before South Africa raised its estimate
for its own wheat production, which itself has declined over the last 20
years, sapped by the better returns offered by alternative crops such as
corn, rapeseed and soybeans.
Tina Joemat-Pettersson, the South African farm minister, pegged the 2011
crop at 1.7m tonnes, up 300,000 tonnes year on year, helped by sowings up
some 40,000 hectares to 600,000 hectares.
Nonetheless, South Africa too will remain a net importer, with production
unable to cover domestic demand of about 3m tonnes.
“Therefore, taking pipeline requirements into consideration, imports of 1.6m
tonnes of wheat are expected for the coming 2011-12 marketing season,” Ms
Joemat-Pettersson said.