Zimbabwe rules out wheat imports

GOVERNMENT will not import wheat and will now scrutinise imports of the cereal for the coming year owing to a bumper winter harvest this year, a senior government official has revealed.

This comes as millers have expressed concern over the quality of local wheat which they say is not good for making bakery confections.

According to the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, Russian and Ukrainian wheat accounted for nearly 60% of wheat imports used locally for self-raising flour to make confectionery products. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early February to date, both countries have stopped wheat exports with partial exports only resuming in August leaving Zimbabwe in desperate need of wheat.

“The policy position for wheat is also that government will not be importing any wheat, we have enough,” Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement minister Anxious Masuka told journalists at the official signing ceremony between his ministry and Treasury  for a US$20 million smallholder irrigation financing injection in Harare yesterday.

“In fact, we may begin to build a small strategic reserve for wheat for the first time in the history of the country and those that import wheat will be on the basis of an import permit, demand driven, to say ‘why do you want to import when we have sufficient wheat in the country which you can purchase from the producers?’ So, that is the government policy,” he indicated.

He said the current wheat bumper harvest could possibly make the country the only one in Africa to reach self-sufficiency.

Tags: импорт, wheat, Zimbabwe