Zambia halts maize exports

05/11/2018,

In mid-October, the Government imposed restrictive measures on the exportation of maize grain and maize meal products. These restrictions are reportedly temporary, in order to allow the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the Government parastatal mandated to manage the national strategic stock and engage in market facilitation, to secure their procurement target of 500 000 tonnes of maize; as of 11 October, purchases were estimated to be approximately 30 percent of the total. Export restrictions come amidst a sharp year-on-year contraction in the 2018 maize output that has exerted upward pressure on domestic prices of maize, which were about 20 percent higher than a year earlier as of October.

Country: Zambia