Tanzania ‘relies too much on wheat imports’
A farmer tends his wheat crop. A global think tank says Tanzania could face a serious shortage of wheat flour if prices rise sharply in the global market. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The warning by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says Tanzania’s wheat imports are too small to influence the world price in favour of the country.
Arusha. Tanzania’s high reliance on wheat imports may have serious implications on the country’s food security in case of sharp price increase.
A global think tank fighting hunger says a rise in the international food market risked the country facing serious shortage of the staple food.
The warning by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says Tanzania’s wheat imports are too small to influence the world price in favour of the country.
“As the wheat imports are too small to influence the world price of wheat, Tanzania is facing a perfectly elastic world demand,” it said.
High reliance on world trade means a small increase in the commodity’s price can result in import reduction “with significant implications for food security”.
According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (Fao), Tanzania imported wheat worth $289 million a year between 2010 and 2017.
Wheat imports rose from about $158 million in 2010 to $415 million worth of wheat in 2017, said the data from IITA regional office in Tanzania.
Wheat is Tanzania’s fourth most consumed crop after maize, cassava, and rice.Wheat grains account for about one third of the total food import value.
Dr Shiferaw Feleke, an agricultural economist with IITA, suggests policy interventions to save the country from the likely impact especially with Covid-19 outbreak.
These include substitution of wheat flour with other cheaper flour sources such as cassava or investing heavily in wheat research to increase production.
Dr Feleke said the outbreak of Covid-19 was a wakeup call for the African countries to revisit their food trade versus food security programmes.
Covid-19 pandemic, he said demostrates the need for African countries to increase domestic production to meet food consumption requirements “by trading off efficiency for sufficiency”.
He warned that dependency on international food trade was risky “as the international food commodity market is thin with fewer sellers”.
According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), only five countries supply 63 per cent of the world’s wheat exports.
“Therefore disruptions in the global supply chain can result in price spikes that can significantly impact on Africa’s food security,” he said.
The price spike would disproportionately affect consumers in Africa as they spend 60-80 percent of their income on food.
