SOUTHERN AFRICA: Weekly Round-Up 44
ZIMBABWE: Food shortages
Zimbabwe could face shortages of basic foods over the coming year largely
due to illegal farm occupations which have disrupted agriculture, industry
officials and analysts told Reuters on Tuesday. Plantings of staple maize
grain are expected to drop sharply this season due to a lack of financing
after the cash-strapped state Grain Marketing Board (GMB) failed to buy the
bulk of last season's crop.
"There is a very strong likelihood that we will be very short of maize next
year and at the moment I don't think we even have enough to last us through
to the next harvesting season in May," private economist Eric Bloch, head of
consultancy firm H & E Bloch and Company, was quoted as saying. But
Zimbabwe's Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo said the country
had enough maize to see it through to the next harvesting season. "We had a
bumper harvest of 2.1 million tonnes last season and we are actually looking
at exporting to the region. There is no question of a food shortage at all,"
Moyo told Reuters.
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