Zim needs 1.8m tons of maize

2005-08-22 12:19

Harare - The Zimbabwe government, in an effort to stave off massive food shortages, has imported 350 000 tons of the staple maize grain over the past three months, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The head of Zimbabwe's state-controlled Grain Marketing Board, Samuel Muvuti told the state-controlled Herald the country was aiming to import approximately 120 000 tons of maize a month to meet the country's total annual requirement of 1.8 million tons of maize.

"We are well-networked and we intend to import grain at the rate of 120 000 tons per month," Muvuti said.

Zimbabwe is in its fourth year of food shortages, which the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) estimates will affect more than four million people between now and March.

President Robert Mugabe's government has refused to make an official appeal for international food aid, saying it has the resources to import sufficient food for its 11.6 million people.

Last week the country's finance minister announced a massive supplementary budget, setting aside the equivalent of $77m for "drought relief".

The Zimbabwe government blames its perennial food shortages on drought, but aid agencies and the main opposition party say Mugabe's controversial programme of land seizures from white commercial farmers since 2000 has slashed agricultural production.

- SAPA