World Grain - August 2013 - 22

COUNTRYFOCUS
TURKEY
GREECE
CYPRUS
LEBANON

SYRIA

Focus on
Zimbabwe

IRAN

IRAQ

ISRAEL
JORDAN

SAUDI
ARABIA

KUWAIT
BAHRAIN
QATAR

EGYPT

U. A. E.

Once a major producer of grain, the
African country is now an importer
SUDAN

by Chris Lyddon

ERITREA

YEMEN

Agriculture is vitally important to Zimbabwe and the country
DJIBOUTI
has been a major producer of grains and other farm products in
the past. However, economic problems, a land reform program
SOMALIA
which has caused disruption, and the weather have combined to
ETHIOPIA
CENTRAL
leave the country needing to import.
AFRICAN
REPUBLIC
The staple crop in Zimbabwe is corn (maize). The International
Grains Council (IGC) puts Zimbabwe’s 2013-14 corn production
UGANDA
at an unchanged 1 million tonnes. Stocks are maintained by the
KENYA
Grain Marketing Board (GMB), which was established in 1931
asRWANDA
the Maize Control Board and is a wholly state-owned enterDEM. REP.
OF CONGO
prise with a network of depots.
BURUNDI
The GMB trades cereals and oilseeds and provides logistics
TANZANIA
services to the agricultural industry as well as processing. Its objective is to ensure food security.
“Corn production in 2013 is expected to remain stagnant, at below average level, and despite relatively stable prices the production shortfalls are anticipated to result in stressed food security
MALAWI
conditions, particularly in southern parts,”
ZAMBIA
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
said in a recent Crop Prospects and Food SituMADAGASCAR
MOZAMBIQUE
ation report.
ZIMBABWE
At the start of July, the Herald newspaper
BIA
in Harare reported that the GMB had started
BOTSWANA
receiving corn from farmers, although the
SOUTH AFRICA
volumes are low.
“The GMB public relations ofﬁce conSWAZILAND
ﬁrmed that farmers had started delivering corn
LESOTHO
but the volumes had declined when compared
with the corresponding period last year,” it said. “The
ofﬁce, however, could not give ﬁgures of the delivered
corn. The decline in volumes of corn delivered to the
GMB has been attributed to drought and the poor payment system by the GMB. This season GMB is paying
$310 per tonne, a price many farmers feel should be increased.
“Most farmers wanted a producer price of $400 per tonne for
them to break even with production costs of $1,055 per hectare.
According to the latest Zimbabwe Farmers Union weekly market
22

Key Facts
Capital: Harare
Population: 13,182,908 (July 2013 est.)
Religions: Syncretic (part Christian, part indigenous beliefs)
50%, Christian 25%, indigenous beliefs 24%, Muslim and
other 1%.
Location: Southern Africa, between South Africa and Zambia.
Government: Parliamentary democracy. Chief of state:
Executive President Robert Gabriel Mugabe (since Dec.
31, 1987); head of government: Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai (since Feb. 11, 2009).
Economy: Zimbabwe’s economy is growing despite
continuing political uncertainty. Following a decade of
contraction from 1998 to 2008, Zimbabwe’s economy
recorded real growth of more than 9% per year in 201011, before slowing to 5% in 2012, due in part to a
poor harvest and low diamond revenues. However, the
government of Zimbabwe still faces a number of difficult
economic problems, including infrastructure and regulatory
deficiencies, ongoing indigenization pressure, policy
uncertainty, a large external debt burden, and insufficient
formal employment. Zimbabwe’s 1998-2002 involvement
in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy.
The government’s subsequent land reform program,
characterized by chaos and violence, badly damaged the
commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports
and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs,
turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. Until
early 2009, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely printed
money to fund the budget deficit, causing hyperinflation.
Dollarization in early 2009 — which allowed currencies
such as the Botswana pula, the South Africa rand, and the
U.S. dollar to be used locally — ended hyperinflation and
reduced inflation to about 10%, but exposed structural
weaknesses that continue to inhibit broad-based growth.
GDP per capita: $600 (2012 est.); inflation: 8.2% (2012
est.); unemployment: 95% (2009 est.) figures reflect
underemployment; true unemployment is unknown and,
under current economic conditions, unknowable.
Currency: Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD): Zimbabwean dollars
per U.S. dollar -234.25 (2010); the dollar was adopted as a
legal currency in 2009; since then the Zimbabwean dollar
has experienced hyperinflation and is essentially worthless.
Exports: $3.314 billion (2012 est.): platinum, cotton,
tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing.
Imports: $4.569 billion (2012 est.): machinery and
transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels,
food products.
Major crops/agricultural products: Corn, cotton, tobacco,
wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs.
Agriculture: 20.3% of GDP and 66% of the labor force.
Internet: Code: .zw; 30,615 million (2012) hosts and
1.423 million (2009) users.
Source: CIA World Factbook

August 2013 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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