Country 's bumper harvest could help neighbours

Although the rest of Southern Africa is threatened by a poor maize crop, South Africa is set to produce a bumper harvest, according to new forecasts. "That surplus will be needed by South Africa's neighbours," the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in its latest crop report for Africa. The World Food Programme (WFP), which procures food aid for distribution to countries in need, responded cautiously to the FAO report's suggestion. WFP spokesman Mike Huggins said while the expected bumper crop in South Africa provided a "huge opportunity", in view of the drought in the rest of the region, "all of our purchases go to tender". He noted that the food aid agency would consider any country or company, "as long as they offer competitive prices". According to the latest official forecast, South Africa, the region's largest producer, was expecting 11.1 million mt of maize in the 2004/05 season. An earlier assessment had predicted 10.5 million mt, which the FAO report said represented "an improvement of about eight percent on last year and 11 percent over the previous five-year average". The total annual South African demand for maize is just over eight million mt. Despite the good harvest prospects, many parts of South Africa have been facing drought conditions since 2002. Earlier this year the government allocated R130 million (about US $22 million) to provide drought relief in seven of the country's nine provinces after they were declared disaster areas by President Thabo Mbeki. Dry spells in February have undermined crop estimates in southern Malawi, southern and central Mozambique, the southern half of Zimbabwe, Swaziland, the northern parts of South Africa, southern Zambia, and Botswana. However, the report said, "better crop prospects" were expected in much of Angola, northern Zambia, northern Malawi and northern Mozambique.