Tanzania halts plan to export surplus food

Dar es Salaam. The government said yesterday that it was postponing its earlier plan of exporting excess food stocks to neighbouring countries as it conducts an evaluation of food availability amid forecasts of drier than usual conditions in some parts of the country.

The evaluation seeks to ensure that the available food is enough to meet the country’s requirements until the next season in case of a prolonged dry spell, Agriculture deputy minister Omary Mgumba said.

Mr Mgumba was responding to a caution issued in Dar es Salaam yesterday by the World Food Program (WFP), calling upon the government to come up with the necessary measures to deal with drought.

WFP country representative Michael Dunford issued the warning when he accompanied Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan who was in the country to oversee maternal and newborn health and nutrition.

Mr Mgumba told The Citizen by telephone that the government, which had been seeking markets for surplus food stocks in neighbouring countries, had been forced to postpone the search due to drought that is reported to have affected most countries in eastern Africa.

“We had plans to sell almost 100,000 tonnes of excess food to neighbouring countries, including Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, but we have put this on hold to see whether the available food will be able to sustain us to next year in case of drought,” he said.

Mr Mgumba called on businesspeople to take the challenge as an opportunity and buy excess food in the country and stock it so as to ensure availability of food in the long run.

“Directives have been issued to the Cereals and Other Produce Board and the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to continue purchasing and storing excess food.”

A statement issued on Sunday by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) said there was a higher chance of drier than usual conditions in the coast regions of Tanzania, western Kenya, southern and southeastern Ethiopia, central and Northeastern Somalia, Uganda and South Sudan.

WFP Tanzania has so far purchased from NFRA 36,000 tonnes of maize, sorghum and beans that is intended to be supplied to other countries that are in need.

In Tanzania we are waiting to see to what extent the delayed rain will impact food security and harvests,” Mr Dunford said, adding that some WFP officials based in Tanzania have been deployed in Mozambique to help save lives and provide food and basic needs to those affected by Cyclone Idai.