But as the consignment was delivered by truck, fears were growing that Zimbabwe’s transport facilities do not have the capacity to distribute enough maize to meet demand.
Maize is already scarce on the nation’s supermarket shelves. An estimated 4,1 million people are thought to need food urgently.
It is estimated that Zimbabwe’s railways cannot handle more than 10,000 tons a month and the roads only a fraction of the balance, needed to meet the monthly national consumption of 150,000 tons.
Grain producers last week said the country’s meal stocks were down to less than 40,000 tons.
But the Grain Marketing Board – a semi-state organisation – said imports would not be needed if it could seize stocks being illegally concealed and hoarded by farmers it accuses of being bent on economic sabotage.
Analysts say that a massive drop in commercial planting of maize has contributed to the food crisis.
Morgan Tsvangirai, presidential candidate for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), says 11,9Â million Zimbabweans face the prospect of
hunger and starvation
1.2.2008
7:42
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME HAS ARRIVED!
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME HAS ARRIVED!
Bulawayo - Amid grinding poverty, a consignment of 5,200 tons of maize imported by the World Food Programme (WFP) under an emergency relief plan has arrived in the western city of Bulawayo, a senior WFP official told The Zimbabwean on Thursday.