The latest data published by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) have refuted claims by the Zimbabwean government about halting grain imports.
In February the government claimed that it had stopped issuing grain import permits as maize imports would no longer be allowed, according to reports by local media. The latest stats however reveal that the country imported maize worth $976 765 from February to April this year.
This comes as President Emmerson Mnangangwa last week called on African governments to invest in agriculture at the official opening of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions annual meeting in Victoria Falls. During his address he revealed that the continent spent an estimated $50 billion on food imports.
According to News Day, the Zimbabwean government previously set up Command Agriculture, an import substitution exercise unveiled in 2016 to ensure food security while reducing dependency on imports. The project was allocated a $500 million budget, with which it would produce two million tonnes of maize from 400 000 hectares of land. Despite the imports, the government praised the project earlier this year, projecting a maize output of 2,2 million tonnes during the 2018 national budget.
