May 2, 2012

Zambia earns US$70 million from corn export in six months

In order to meet regional food demand, Zambia exported 442,294 tonnes of corn to neighbouring countries since October last year, earning the country US$70 million, a senior food reserve agency said Tuesday (May 1).

The grain was exported to countries in the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa regions, representing 49% of the total grain sales, said agency executive director David Matongo. The remainder--some 460,198 tonnes--was sold to local millers, feed producers and emergency stocks.

In October last year, the government asked the Food Reserve Agency to sell 1,067,000 tonnes of corn to avoid wastage, amid a huge surplus.

However, Zambia's corn production has dropped to 2.8 million tonnes this year, from a bumper three million tonnes last year, on account of erratic rains across most of the country, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Emmanuel Chenda said Tuesday, adding that Zambia still has over one million tonnes surplus from last year's crop.

However the Southern African state still had a huge corn surplus arising from stocks carried over from last year and plans are underway to export some of the excess stocks to its neighbours in the region.