November 11, 2010

Tanzanian August 2010 grain reserves drop 2.9% on-year

Tanzania's reserves of corn and sorghum fell 2.9% in August this year to 90,519 tonnes from 93,231 tonnes in the same period of last year, the Central Bank of Tanzania said Wednesday (Nov 10).

However, the stocks of corn and sorghum held by the National Food Reserve Agency in August were up from 47,143 tonnes in July, the bank said in its Monthly Economic Review for September.

"The increase in the stocks was on account of purchase of grains by NFRA following budgetary allocations from the Treasury. NFRA purchased a total of 44,944 tonnes of corn as at the end of August 2010, which is equivalent to 32% of the total of 140,000 tonnes expected to be purchased during 2010/11," the bank said.

Tanzania farmers and traders want the lifting of a ban on corn exports imposed in 2009 because most regions in the country had a bumper harvest in the last season.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives assistant director for plans and budget, David Biswalo, said Wednesday (Nov 10) it was impossible to have unrestricted sales of food, because the country never attained its self-sufficiency ratio.

"Food export bans are temporary measure and not government policy. Whilst by law our national food reserve stocks are supposed to be at least the 150,000 tonnes mark, we have never attained the grain stock level and as the population has almost doubled, we are nowhere reaching this mark in spite of the bumper harvest," said Biswalo.