The government recently instructed the state Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the government parastatal mandated to manage the national strategic stock and engage in market facilitation, to increase the sale of subsidized maize. It also imposed a temporary ban on maize exports. These measures were taken in an effort to bolster domestic availabilities and ease inflationary pressure after prices of staple food, maize meal, rose sharply in April and reached record or near-record highs. Tight domestic supplies and reduced production prospects for this year’s maize crop (GIEWS Country Brief) were the primary factors behind the extremely elevated levels, as well as the depreciation of the country’s currency.