ZIMBABWE PLANS 750 000T OF MAIZE IMPORTS

ZIMBABWE’S government plans to boost maize imports as adverse weather slashes the nation’s harvest. The country’s Grain Marketing Board would float an international tender to import 750 000 tons of the grain, Joseph Gondo, the chief director of Zimbabwe’s agriculture ministry, said in Harare. Gondo declined to provide a time frame for the tender, though he said that the paperwork has been completed. That amount would mark Zimbabwe’s largest maize imports in a season in three years, according to US Department of Agriculture data. It also comes amid surging global maize prices as relentless rains roil US grain plantings, signalling rising costs for importers. Zimbabwe’s maize crop is expected to plummet 54 percent this year amid drought and after Cyclone Idai damaged crops in some provinces, according to the Agriculture Ministry. South Africa may have some grain available and Ukraine could be a supplier. | Bloomberg