Zimbabwe plans to start exporting wheat this year due to its record harvest, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced at the second Dakar Summit on Food Sovereignty and Resilience in Senegal's capital.
“Zimbabwe is well-fed and has a significant stock of wheat, which we intend to export,” the Zimbabwean news outlet Zimlive quoted the head of state as saying on Thursday.
Last year, Zimbabwe harvested 375,000 tons of wheat, which was the largest figure in the history of the country. The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement reported that this volume exceeds the country's domestic needs by 15,000 tons.
In 2021, 330,000 tons of wheat were harvested and the country was forced to cover its shortage with imports.
Speaking at the opening of the Dakar Forum, which was co-organized by the African Development Bank (ADB), on Wednesday, the president of Senegal and the African Union, Macky Sall, said that Africa has the potential to increase its own food production and no longer rely on food imports from other parts of the world.
“To transform our potential into reality, we need to allocate at least 10% of the national budget to the agricultural sector,” Sall told the gathering that included more than 20 African heads of state.
The African continent is home to 1.4 billion people, roughly 17% of the world’s eight billion population. Food sovereignty and sustainability in Africa is one of the main themes of the three-day event, which is set to close on Friday, January 27.