New US food aid policy generates opportunities for Africa

A new US food aid policy that allows foodstuffs to be sourced close to where they are needed will drastically reduce shipping costs and provide more business to non-US shippers. The US is the world’s largest food donor, and as a major recipient of food aid, Africa stands to see its farmers and transport firms benefit. The Obama Administration has submitted to the US Congress new food aid regulations that end a requirement that food originate in the US and that 50-75% of this food be shipped on US flag vessels. Sharply rising shipping costs over the past decade have prompted the change. Because the budget of USAID, the government operation that supervises food aid, must accommodate food purchases and shipping costs, higher transport fees have meant less actual food aid for needy recipients. Allowing rice, wheat or maize to be purchased in SA rather than Iowa for use in Swaziland, for example, would result in costs savings that on a global scale would mean four million more children could be fed on the current USAID budget. The new business for African shippers comes at the expense of US seafreight companies, however. The Obama Administration is setting aside $25 million to cushion the blow and “provide incentives to facilitate the retention of (American) mariners in the workforce.”