Africa Report - No. 3 December 2005

FAO/GIEWS: Africa Report No.3 - December 2005 p.27

ERITREA

Domestic cereal availability in the 2005 marketing year (January/December) is estimated at 140 000 tonnes against total utilization requirements of 571 000 tonnes. Cereal import requirement is thus estimated at 431 000 tonnes. With commercial imports estimated at 91 000 tonnes, food aid needs are estimated at 340 000 tonnes. As of mid-November, the amount of food aid pledged stood at 159 000 tonnes of which 140 000 have been delivered.

CEREAL SUPPLY/DEMAND BALANCE FOR THE 2005 MARKETING YEAR (January/December)
	Wheat	Rice	Coarse Grains	Total Cereals
	[	thousand tonnes		]
Previous year production (incl. paddy rice)	3	-	102	105
Previous five years average production (incl. paddy rice)	15	-	152	167
Previous year imports	326	11	65	402
Previous five years average imports	294	10	54	358
2005 Domestic Availability	60	-	80	140
2004 Production (incl. paddy rice)	5	-	80	85
2004 Production (incl. milled rice)	5	-	80	85
Possible stock drawdown	55	-	-	55
2005 Utilization	310	11	250	571
Food use	310	11	189	510
Non-food use	-	-	33	33
Exports or re-exports	-	-	-	-
Possible stock build up	-	-	28	28
2005 Import Requirement	250	11	170	431
Anticipated commercial imports	40	11	40	91
of which: received or contracted	36	-	28	64
Food aid needs	210	-	130	340
Current Aid Position
Food aid pledges	91	-	69	159
of which: delivered	76	-	64	140
Donor-financed purchases	-	-	-	-
of which: for local use	-	-	-	-
for export	-	-	-	-
Estimated Per Caput Consumption (kg/year)	86	3	52	141
Indexes	[	percentage		]
2004 Production compared to average (incl. paddy rice)	33	-	53	51
2005 Import requirement compared to average	85	110	315	120
Cereal share of total calorie intake				79
Additional Information
Major foodcrops	sorghum; teff; millet; maize; pulses
Lean season	August-November
Population (000s)	3 622
GNI per capita in 2004 (US$)	180

FAO/GIEWS - December 2005