Food exports to Swaziland rise 40%

MBABANE – Food imports into Swaziland from or via South Africa rose 40% last year – to R634.3m from R453.5m in 2013. Road transport was the primary mover of food products ranging from vegetables to poultry products. These are all consumer foodstuffs sold at retail outlets and the data excludes the substantial amount of food aid shipped into the country by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) and other international emergency aid and donor organisations. About a third of Swazis receive some form of food assistance. Government’s finance minister Martin Dlamini declared agriculture to be the backbone of the Swazi economy in his budget speech last week, but the country that until the 1970s was a net exporter of food to the southern Africa region seems in no hurry to return to food production sustainability. Although committed as a signatory to international accords on food security to dedicate 10% of government’s annual spending to agriculture, resources for agriculture will be lower in 2015/16, declining to 3.3% of the budget.