Siseko Njobeni, Trade And Industry Correspondent
5 April 2004
Johannesburg — ENCOURAGED by the recent fall in local white maize prices, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said that it may buy South African maize for its food-aid programme in Angola.
On Friday, WFP spokesman Richard Lee said that the United Nations (UN) agency would consider purchasing white maize from SA in view of the ban on genetically modified maize in Angola.
The WFP seeks to feed more than 6-million people in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland. However, the UN food agency's drive against hunger has faced resistance, with most of the countries rejecting genetically modified unmilled maize, mainly on the grounds that it is unsuitable for human consumption.
Last week Angola became the latest country to ban genetically modified unmilled crops, joining Lesotho, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Angola has not yet announced when the ban will take effect, but close to 2-million Angolans depend on food aid
"We know they will go ahead with the ban. When they make the announcement, we will have to find nongenetically modified maize, and we will consider SA because local prices have become competitive again ," Lee said.
Commodity Trading House agricultural economist Jaco Grobbelaar said if the WFP decided to buy local maize, "that will boost our export figures for the next marketing year".
In January and February South African Futures Exchange (Safex) white maize spot prices went as high as R1400, compared with R927 at the beginning of December last year.
When Safex closed on Friday, white maize traded at R1187 a ton.
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