Tanzanian govt decides to halt export of surpass food to initially deal country’s drought

The government of Tanzania announced on March 27 that it was postponing its previous plan of exporting excess food stocks to the neighbouring countries. The government currently wants to evaluate the food availability amid forecasts of drier than usual conditions in some parts of the nation.

The government of Tanzania wants to evaluate to ensure that the availability of food is adequate to meet the country’s requirement until next season in case of a prolonged dry spell. The World Food Program has called upon the government to take necessary actions to deal with the drought. According to Omary Mgumba, Agriculture deputy minister, the warning from the World Food Program was issued when he was with Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan who was present in the country to inspect newborn and maternal health and nutrition.

The minister told The Citizen over phone that the government of Tanzania, which had been seeking markets for surplus food stocks in the neighbouring nations, was compelled to postpone search due to the drought that has reportedly affected most countries in eastern Africa.

“We had plans to sell about 100,000 tonnes of excess foods to neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, but we have put this on hold to see whether the available food will be able to sustain us to next year in case of drought,” he said, The Citizen noted.

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