Wheat stocks to improve

The National Railways of Zimbabwe has increased the number of wagons to carry the 20,000 metric tonnes of wheat stuck in Mozambique as the Ministry of Transport steps up efforts to avert a looming shortage.

Two weeks ago, the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe wrote a letter to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Munesu Munodawafa saying the country only had two weeks cover of wheat due to the low uptake by NRZ.

“NRZ has advised us that over 100 wagons have been deployed to uplift the 20,000 metric tonne of wheat deliveries expected in the next few days. The same traction will be maintained throughout the festive season,” GMAZ chairman Tafadzwa Musarara said in a statement. He said the milling industry has taken a good aggregate position of 200,000 metric tonnes of wheat for the festive season, which is more than the national requirement for the season. Local wheat production has gone down over the past years as challenges such as erratic power supply for irrigation, funding and high production costs have rendered production of the crop unviable.

Musarara said the milling industry has already started to buy local wheat grown under contract and produced by independent producers.

“The milling industry is benefiting from reduced flour imports and is registering positive increase in capacity utilisation. In this regard, we commend the Ministry of Agriculture for suspending issuances of flour import permits. We therefore promise that due to the above mentioned interventions, wheat and wheat flour supplies will be normal going forward and there’s no need for flour imports,” he said.

However, the Ministry of Agriculture said the country faced a huge wheat deficit of 300,000 tonnes as wheat production is expected to reach a mere 10,000 tonnes in the winter wheat season.

Wheat production was projected to increase by 17,6 percent to 29,000 tonnes this year from 24,700 tonnes in the 2014 national budget. But the area put under the crop went down from 4,000 hectares last year to about 3,000 hectares. At peak, about 65,000 hectares of wheat were planted.

Zimbabwe requires 400,000 tonnes of wheat annually and shortages mean that the country has to meet the shortfall with costly imports from countries such as South Africa and Zambia. – BH24.