According to Adelaide Johnson, spokesperson for the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, the country was taking an unprecedented step of seeking grain imports from Australia and Brazil.
The country’s state grain security agency, which is responsible for maintaining strategic reserves, was turning to seaborne trade for both maize and sorghum. Imports secured from Zimbabwe and South Africa were deemed insufficient.
“We continue to explore countries such as Brazil and Australia. The plan is to import regionally and internationally to augment the little harvest expected,” the minister said.
According to the report, “The step is another sign of the devastation the drought is causing across the region. Recently, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community appealed for at least R101,22 billion in assistance to cope with droughts and floods caused by El Niño.”
Botswana last imported maize from Brazil in 2003, according to International Trade Centre data. The majority by far of the 3,3 million tons the country imported between 2003 and 2022 came from South Africa. Only 70t were sourced internationally.
Imports from outside the continent “would be super-unusual”, Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said in the report. “Given the extent of drought this year, it is understandable that Botswana would look for grain imports from the likes of Australia and Brazil.”
Australia was the world’s second-biggest sorghum exporter, according to the World Bank. Maize and sorghum were the staple grains in Botswana.
The area planted for summer crops was reduced by almost two-thirds to just over 98 000ha in the 2023/24 season, according to the Botswana Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security.
Heleen Viljoen, Grain SA economist, said South Africa exported 256 439t of white maize to Botswana in the 2023/24 season. So far in the 2024/25 season, 17 330t has been exported.
During the past season, 45 667t of yellow maize were exported from South Africa to Botswana, while 4 873t were exported in the current 2024/25 season.
