Maravi

Zambia's maize stocks decline

Zambia's maize stocks decline
By Joan Chirwa
Tuesday April 29, 2008 [04:00]

ZAMBIA'S national maize stocks have recorded a 44.5 per cent decline in the first quarter of 2008, standing at 321,195 metric tonnes from 578,266 metric tonnes at the end of December 2007. And the country's copper output has declined by 8.9 per cent to 128,592.7 metric tonnes from 141,076.9 metric tonnes in the last quarter of 2007, chiefly due to the flooding of mines during the rainy season.

During the first quarter media briefing, Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Dr Caleb Fundanga said the reduction in maize stocks during the period under review was a reflection of the seasonal pressure on maize grain.

Dr Fundanga however has said the country would have enough maize stocks at the end of the harvest season despite some areas recording total crop failure resulting from flooding experienced in the 2007/2008 rainy season.

Central Province had the highest maize stock with 119,420 metric tonnes, representing 30.7 per cent of the total national reserve while Western Province had the lowest stock with 1,223 metric tonnes, mainly because the area is not a maize belt.

The stock of maize grain by the milling companies has also drastically reduced, signifying the recent increase in prices of mealie meal on the local market.

"On a provincial basis, millers in Southern, Lusaka, Central and Copperbelt provinces accounted for 7,012 metric tonnes, 6,646 metric tonnes, 6,276 metric and 3,340 metric tonnes respectively," Dr Fundanga said.

"The maize marketing season is approaching and we hope that during this quarter as we harvest our maize, we will see a reduction in prices of mealie-meal."

Dr Fundanga said the impact of the serious floods that hit parts of Southern Province are likely to be felt at the end of the fourth quarter this year.

"Southern Province will be adversely affected by the bad weather we experienced during this rainy season. However, those areas which are expecting to have more crops, such as Central Province, will add to the national maize stocks," Dr Fundanga said.

"Impacts of reduced maize production in Southern Province will start to tell somewhere in the fourth quarter of 2008. That is when we will really see the real impact."

And preliminary data released by BoZ for the first quarter of 2008 shows that Zambia's copper output declined by 8.9 per cent to 128,592 metric tonnes, although this output level was higher than 114,912 metric tonnes recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2007.

During the same period, cobalt output also declined by 8.2 per cent to 1,150 metric tonnes from 1,252 metric tonnes in the previous quarter. The 2008 first quarter output of cobalt was however 26.9 per cent higher than the 906.5 metric tonnes produced in the same period last year.

Despite the reduction in production, copper export earnings increased by 3.2 per cent to US $886.0 million from US $858.4 million recorded in the previous quarter, reflecting higher realized London Metal Exchange prices which increased to US $7,746.94 from US $6,949.22 per tonne.

However, copper export volumes declined to 114,367.8 metric tonnes from 123,523.8 metric tonnes.

Labels: MAIZE

posted by MrK @ 8:15 AM