SAfrica boosts grain exports to Zimbabwe

SOUTH AFRICA has increased food exports to the southern African region in
the last grain marketing season with over half of its total maize exports going to
Zimbabwe to ease the food crisis.
SOUTH AFRICA has increased food exports to the southern African region in the last grain marketing season
with over half of its total maize exports going to Zimbabwe to ease the food crisis.A report released Tuesday
by the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) indicated that Zimbabwe has been South
Africa’s main export market over the past season, followed by Botswana.SAGIS serves the following
industries in South Africa: maize (white and yellow separately), oil seeds (sunflower, soybeans, canola and
groundnuts), winter cereals (wheat, barley and oats) and sorghumZimbabwe bought 19,932 tonnes of the total
white maize export in the week to January 16, 2008 out of a total South African export of 33,561 —
over half of total exports.According to SAGIS yellow maize exports were 1,873 tonnes for the same
week.South Africa is the biggest maize producer on the continent.In total the country exported 351,055 tonnes
of maize to Zimbabwe since last May boosting the country’s grain export sector.Much of South
Africa's harvest has been exported this year after a bumper harvest of 12.70 million tonnes.Total SA exports
for the marketing season, which runs from May 2008 to April 2009, have so far surged to 1.29 million tonnes,
compared with 469,059 tonnes in the whole of last season.Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis with many
households set to receive smaller food rations from the UN in the coming months because of a funding
shortfall of around $65 million for food aid operations set to end in March.Oxfam's Zimbabwe director Peter
Mutoredzanwa said many poor families were selling basic assets, including livestock, to buy food.FOOD
CRISIS IN AFRICAUN Special Advisor on Millennium Development Goals and renowned development
economist, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs said the food crisis in Africa has left millions of people wallowing in
poverty.Professor Sachs the US needed to do more to address the crisis. He said the 5 billion U.S. dollars
worth of aid per year in Africa is the lowest to the Western world and is barely enough to address the
agricultural programmes for Africa.The expert, who is also director of Earth Institute at Columbia University
in New York said that Washington is channeling only 1 percent of its Gross National product towards Africa's
food needs. He hoped that the new U.S. administration will address the variance.He warned that the crises in
Africa will not ease if food security is not prioritized."Wars in the world are caused by crises of hunger and
armies cannot solve these wars as long as people in wastelands are hungry," Sachs told journalists in Kenya
where approximately 10 million people are on the verge of starvation. "As long as there are people in want of
food, the world will not be safe," he added.

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