Zimbabwe faces record wheat imports

Zimbabwe faces its biggest wheat imports on record after bureaucratic hiccups fuelled a drop in the winter crop sowings to their lowest levels since the 1960s.

Last year there were some reports that Zimbabwe recorded its lowest ever wheat output of about 10,000 tonnes due to lack of funding and continued upheavals on commercial farms.

The country's wheat production, which reached 325,000 tonnes a decade ago, is set to come in at 12,000 tonnes in 2011-12, US Department of Agriculture attaches said.

The decline reflects in part a switch to corn, for which output looks like reaching a 10-year high of 1.4m tonnes, boosted by ample supplies of seed and a relaxation of imports curbs on fertilizer, for which the crop has particularly high needs.

Wheat is Zimbabwe's second staple grain, after maize, but the country has failed to meet its annual consumption requirements of between 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes.

The relaxation in nutrient buy-ins spared Zimbabwe a squeeze on ammonium nitrate supplies after the only domestic producer "failed to meet local requirements because of constraints of power outages and constant equipment breakdowns".

While the country's economy has shown signs of recovering from an era of hyperinflation, its infrastructure remains run-down, necessitating power cuts of up to 18 hours a day.

Distribution problem

However, the fall-off in wheat prospects also reflects the failure of a $10m programme announced by the government in March to support wheat sowings through subsidising seed and fertilizer purchases, in a programme run by the Grain Marketing Board.

"The disbursement of inputs to Grain Marketing Board depots was delayed, and the majority of farmers did not have access to inputs during the recommended planting period," which ended in mid-May, the USDA attaches said.

They estimated Zimbabwe's farmers harvesting 6,000 hectares of wheat this year, half last year's levels, and the lowest since 1967-68.

With production also tumbling imports were set to rise 12% year on year to a record 280,000 tonnes.

The country relies on South Africa for the bulk of its wheat imports, with Germany, Lithuania and the US also major providers over the past year.

South African rebound

The attaché estimates came shortly before South Africa raised its estimate for its own wheat production, which itself has declined over the last 20 years, sapped by the better returns offered by alternative crops such as corn, rapeseed and soybeans.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson, the South African farm minister, pegged the 2011 crop at 1.7m tonnes, up 300,000 tonnes year on year, helped by sowings up some 40,000 hectares to 600,000 hectares.

Nonetheless, South Africa too will remain a net importer, with production unable to cover domestic demand of about 3m tonnes.

"Therefore, taking pipeline requirements into consideration, imports of 1.6m tonnes of wheat are expected for the coming 2011-12 marketing season," Ms Joemat-Pettersson said. 

In 2009, Zimbabwe produced about 15,000 tonnes of wheat, according to the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), although government projections put the figure four times higher.

The CFU which represents the few remaining white farmers in the country, said Zimbabwe would need to meet almost its entire wheat requirements through imports.