A HIGH level meeting has been called by the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) and Africa Economic Development Strategies (AEDS) to discuss ways of reducing Zimbabwe’s grain import bill and promoting local alternatives.
The bill, standing at US$2 billion annually has been described as a national security vulnerability, with local solutions said to be necessary considering a volatile international market that has been hit hard by wars and hostile conflicts.
The strictly-by-invite meeting which will be attended by senior government officials, captains of industry, financiers, agro-processors and farmer representative bodies, seeks to align strategy and action on grains and oilseeds value chain localisation.
The meeting has been set for January 15 at a venue and time yet to be announced.
“The meeting is convened against a backdrop of heightened global geopolitical uncertainty and repeated supply chain disruptions, which have exposed the risks of reliance on food imports,” reads a press statement sent to this publication.
“Lessons from the Covid 19 pandemic and ongoing global conflicts have underscored a critical reality: food import dependence is a national security vulnerability.”
Moreover, “Zimbabwe currently spends over US$2 billion annually on agricultural imports, a significant proportion of which can be competitively produced locally.
On the other hand, “In response, the Government of Zimbabwe has prioritised self-sufficiency in grains and oilseeds and the domestication of key agricultural value chains as both an economic and security imperative.”
Already, local research and design has come up with a wheat strain that will substitute millions of dollars worth of import from Europe and North Africa.
Coupled with a harvest that has been touted as the best since commencement of commercial wheat farming, officials indicate that Zimbabweans will have enough.
Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025 (SI 87), which restricts imports of selected grains and oilseeds to stimulate domestic production and accelerate agro-industrial growth is expected to be a major talking point.