June 1, 2007

Zambia competes with Malawi for corn exports to Zimbabwe

The Zambian government has told its Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to slash its corn export price to Zimbabwe from US$250 to US$230 a tonne to compete with Malawi, Zambia Daily Mail reported Wednesday (May 30).

Zambian Agriculture Minister Ben Kapita said that his country will export 100,000 tonnes of corn to Zimbabwe at US$230 a tonne.

He said he allowed the state-funded FRA this March to export corn at US$250 a tonne to which Zimbabwe later cancelled because of the price.

Malawi has earlier reduced its corn prices to US$185 per tonne

To compete with the given price, Kapita said the FRA has to sell off old stocks to enable it to have storage capacity for new stocks to be bought in the 2007/2008 crop marketing season beginning the June first and ending September 30.

The minister said the private sector is offering between 25,000 kwacha (about US$6.25) a bag and 32,000 kwacha (about US$8) for a 50-kilogramme bag of corn. But the FRA will be buying it at 38,000 kwacha (about US$9.5) for the same volume.