PRETORIA, ZIMBABWE — Zimbabwe is expected to produce 5% more corn in 2023-24 but will still need to import half a million tonnes to meet demand, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture.

Production is estimated at 1.5 million tonnes, mainly due to normal rainfall in the northern regions of the country. This year’s corn production mirrors the average corn production of Zimbabwe in the past five years, the FAS said.

“Farmers’ ability in Zimbabwe to optimize corn production is hampered by on-going macro-economic challenges, relatively high input costs, especially fuel and fertilizer, infrastructure constrains, including a lack of electricity and deteriorating roads, and a prohibition on the commercial planting of genetically engineered (GE) seeds,” the FAS said.

Corn is the main staple food crop with white corn used for human consumption and yellow corn used in animal feed.

Human consumption is expected to hold steady at 1.8 million tonnes while corn for feed is expected to increase 14% to 400,000 tonnes, mainly driven by growth in the poultry industry.

Zimbabwe will have to import 450,000 tonnes of corn to meet local demand. This excludes the mandate to maintain minimum strategic reserve of 500,000 tonnes of grain in physical stocks.

The nation mostly will depend on South Africa for corn imports. South Africa produced its third largest corn crop on record in 2023 and has more than 3 million tonnes of corn available for export in 2023-24, the FAS said.