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The Ethiopian government has floated a tender in
South Africa, searching for suppliers of 30,000tns
of maize, sources disclosed.
A staff member from the Disaster Prevention and
Preparedness Agency (DPPA) has been sent to South
Africa, in order to administer responses from
interested suppliers. It is not clear whether
interested bidders have responded to the
announcements made in South Africa's media.
If found, the procurements are meant to pay back the
90,000tns of maize the Agency had borrowed from the
National Food Reserve in 2004, after it secured a
deal with the European Commission (EC). The latter
had agreed to reimburse the amount by procuring from
the local market.
The Commission reimbursed only 27,000tns due to the
shortage of grain, not only in the country, but in
the entire Horn of Africa, where EU was supposed to
purchase from. A total of nine thousand metric
tonnes of the substituted amount was procured from
the local market, while the remaining came from
international markets, according to sources.
Ethiopia produced 5.6 million tonnes of maize in
2007/08, harvested largely from Oromia and Southern
regional states, making it the third largest
producer in eastern and southern Africa, following
Tanzania and South Africa. Production has declined
from last year: For instance, the Southern Regional
State, one of the largest producers of maize,
produced 41.3 million quintals in 2006/07, harvested
from 1.2 million hectares of land. Currently, this
figure has gone down to 36.3 million quintals,
harvested from 1.3 million hectares, and has been
attributed to the lack of Belg rain.
Last year, both the Commission and the Agency had
tried to procure maize from Sudan, but failed due to
the UN embargo on the country.
"Following WFP's recent procurement from South
Africa for aid operations in Ethiopia, we decided to
go there," a member of the Purchase and Tender
Committee under the Agency told Fortune.
When this purchase is made, EC and DPPA will remain
with a 33,000tns balance to finalize the
reimbursement to the National Food Reserve, sources
disclosed.
But the price of maize in South Africa is reported
to be on the rise, according to the Mail & Guardian,
a weekly paper published in English in Johannesburg.
The price of a tonne of maize increased last Monday
by 63.29 dollars, to 164.5 dollars. This was due to
a decline in the farming of maize last year in South
Africa.
Ironically, the price of maize is cheaper in
Ethiopia; a quintal of maize traded at 620 Br last
week at the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECEx)
market.
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