Rising prices erode household food security

Rising prices of staples continued to erode household food security in some of the most insecure countries in Southern Africa, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said in its latest update.

FEWS NET said the outlook for prices of staples was cause for concern as prices were likely to "remain high and increase until the next harvest [around March/April 2003], which will worsen food access for an increasing number of households in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, as well as parts of Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique".

Over 14 million people have been identified as needing food aid in the six countries, with Zimbabwe accounting for about half those in need followed by Zambia and Malawi.

Conditions in the three worst affected countries remained of concern "given that household purchasing power was already low earlier in the consumption year (which started in May)," FEWS NET's latest Update on Cereal Price Trends in Southern Africa said.

The document noted that "abnormally high maize prices in much of the region were acting as a strong incentive for producers and exporters in northern Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania".

But an earlier FEWS NET drought and flood hazards assessment had reported in early December that most of the region had only recorded between 1mm and 10 mm of rain with "substantially inhibited" rainfall over portions of South Africa, Zimbabwe and central to southern Mozambique.

A lack of rain had inhibited the planting of important crops of maize, wheat, sunflower, sorghum and soya in the regional breadbasket, South Africa.

In the countries worst hit by rocketing food prices - Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia - retail prices were generally higher than average in food insecure areas. Two consecutive poor harvests and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions - in Zimbabwe inflation stood at 144 percent in November - were creating upward pressure on food prices.

In Zimbabwe, "as a result of poor policies (e.g. price controls and haphazard land redistribution) and an insufficient pipeline of commercial food imports and aid flows ... most staple foods were increasingly out of reach for many rural and urban households".

Continued high inflation, shortages and an increasing number of products put under price controls were supporting these higher prices. Parallel market prices for maize had increased by over 300 percent in the past seven months.

As a result, members of poor urban households were "increasingly engaging in illegal activities - such as robbery, prostitution, moving to illegal settlements and selling controlled commodities on the parallel market - to acquire sufficient income to purchase food and other basic needs", FEWS NET noted.

In Zambia, high and increasing prices of maize and maize meal were resulting in "poor households exhausting strategies to acquire food".

FEWS NET was "especially concerned about the ability of households in the southern part of the country to acquire sufficient food between now and the pre-harvest period. An emergency alert statement will be available soon on the FEWS NET website (www.fews.net) to highlight the alarming increase in food insecurity in Zambia between now and the next harvest."

While prices in Malawi were increasing, they were still lower than the same period last year. But the report warned that "the slow delivery of food aid would exacerbate the impact of the high maize prices in rural parts of Malawi between now and the next harvest, especially in the southern part of the country".