Africa’s economic engine
drift through the hot wind. Little sand
dunes were forming over the dirt road
between fields where he has planted
peanuts, soya beans and maize: "It’s
grim."
As a result, South Africa is importing
maize for the first time in seven
years from places such as the US
and Argentina. Countries that buy
South Africa’s surplus grain, such as
Zimbabwe and Swaziland, are importing
pricier substitutes from the same
global markets. (Although Zambia is
supplying most of Zimbabwe’s maize
requirements, to its very great detriment.)
Thanks to the continent’s colonial era
when over 2000 polities were united into
50 countries, most African economies
are built around commodity exports
to the developed world or China in
exchange for finished goods. Just 10% of
Africa’s trade passes between countries
on the continent. Zimbabwe and
Tanzania have banned grain exports.
Zambia is thinking of doing the same.
(Zimbabwe has not exported any grain
for 16 years)
Such restrictions would weigh heavily
on increasingly famished countries like
Malawi, the world’s poorest according to
the World Bank, and war-racked South
Sudan. Even Ethiopia, a fast-growing
economy that has attracted investors
from Europe and China, is struggling
to feed more than 15-million people as
the drought deepens. The new trade
restrictions contradict frequent promises
from African leaders to unlock economic
potential by trading more with each
other.
An alphabet soup of acronym-bearing
trade blocs aim to change that. In June,
leaders from 26 countries in East and
Southern Africa vowed to build one
free-trade zone with around 600-million
people. The intended zone includes
the countries hardest hit by the current
drought and those blocking the sale of
grain beyond their borders, showing how
bold promises of regional integration
remain distant.
"If you try to keep grain in your country
artificially, farmers won’t plant next year
and then you have a bigger problem,"
said industry trade group Grain SA chief
executive Jannie de Villiers. "High prices
can only be cured by incentivising more
farmers to grow."
Instead, the trade blockages are creating
a business opportunity for traders like
Abdul Sayuni who are buying up grain
from relatively bountiful countries such as
Tanzania and Zambia and shipping it to
harder-hit countries — at a steep profit.
By 9am each morning, Mr Sayuni is
filling orders at his unmarked storefront in
Kampala to move grain across Uganda’s
porous border from sellers in Tanzania to
buyers in Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Mr Sayuni abandoned his timber-trading
business in favour of “illicit” grain in
April as drought pushed food prices up
40% across the region. He said he has
earned more than $20,000 since then,
more than he made in three years of
selling timber. "As long as the stocks
keep coming, I want to keep in this
business," the 35-year-old father of three
said with a giddy smile.
At least 1,000 tonnes of grain is being
smuggled daily through Uganda to
drought-stricken countries including
Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan,
officials at Uganda’s commodities
exchange estimate. Dicksons
Kateshumbwa, a Ugandan customs
official, said the 250-mile border
between Tanzania and Uganda is too
remote for police to patrol adequately,
making it a favourite conduit for
FARMERS GAZETTE
November 2015
45