SA to ship 150,000 mt of maize to Malawi

South Africa's Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank said on Thursday it had reached a US $33 million deal with the Malawi government and National Food Relief Agency to supply 150,000 mt of maize to them, news reports said.

The bank's Vaughan McTaggart was quoted as saying that most of the maize would be sent north from South Africa by road, but some would also be moved by rail and some would be shipped via Durban to Mozambique, and then railroaded to Malawi. "This will keep Malawi going until their next season. It's raw maize and will be used for food. It will go straight into their mills," he said.

Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank won the tender to supply the trade finance because it offered the most favourable terms and could put the financing in place quickly, he added, saying that the first truckloads arrived in the Malawi capital Blantyre last Thursday. "The food situation in Malawi has become critical in areas devastated by this year's floods," McTaggart said.

The Southern African Development Community's Regional Early Warning Unit said in August that the region faced an estimated a 2.1 million mt maize shortfall in 2001/02, with South Africa being the only country in the region with a surplus large enough for exports. Government officials in Malawi said recently that the country needed to import an estimated 180,000 mt of maize after output fell because of adverse weather conditions.