Millers call for action to boost maize supplies

Zambia is fast running out of maize and the Millers' Association of Zambia (MAZ) has called for the extension of an import duty waiver to boost supplies of the country's staple food. "We have about 90,000 mt of maize left, which is about two months' supply," MAZ deputy chair Peter Cottan told IRIN on Tuesday. The government needs to extend by 90 days a waiver of the duty on maize, due to expire on December 31, he added. The government should also step up maize collection by its Food Reserve Agency (FRA), said Cottan. Zambia's Finance and National Panning minister, Ngandu Magande, waived the 15 percent duty on maize from South Africa in September, allowing millers to import up to 200,000 mt to offset a drought-induced shortfall. A report by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation in September said Zambia's requirement for 2005/06 (May/April) was estimated at 271,000 mt, which was expected to be covered by 224,000 mt of commercial imports and 47,000 mt of international food aid. Technical "hiccups" had stalled the import of 150,000 mt of maize from South Africa, said Cottan, explaining the need for an extension of the import duty waiver. Confirming the shortage, Enock Katowezhi, a spokesman for the ministry of agriculture, told IRIN that MAZ had not reported the technical problems to them. He noted that last month's fuel crisis, caused by the closure of the country's only refinery due to problems encountered during routine maintenance, had slowed down FRA's maize procurement in rural areas. "The truth is we are in a desperate position and unless the government mobilises trucks through the FRA to mop up the maize in the rural areas and bring it to Lusaka [the capital], people will starve because our mills are empty - in fact, there are no operational hammer mills in the rural areas," Cottan warned. "We are trying our very best to ensure that we collect all the maize we can find, now that the fuel crisis has abated," said Katowezhi. The Zambian government has resisted calls by NGOs and the opposition to declare a national food emergency, saying there was enough food in rural Zambia to feed those threatened by starvation. The UN's World Food Programme expects the number of people in need of food aid, mainly in the south of the country, to rise to between 1.7 million and 2 million during the lean season beginning next month, due to last season's poor harvest. Zambia has a population of roughly 11 million.