More buyers eye Zambian maize as the record harvest goes to market

The queue is forming. More regional buyers are eyeing Zambian maize on the back of the country's record harvest, weeks after the Food Reserve Agency signed a 540,000-tonne export agreement with Kenya's Baita Trading — one of the largest grain deals in the country's history.

The interest is a problem farmers have waited years to have: a surplus big enough to sell, in a region where several neighbours face deficits. For the treasury, maize exports mean foreign exchange; for farmers, they mean the floor price holds against the usual post-harvest collapse.

The government's line remains that exports are calculated strictly after national food security is assured — the FRA holds strategic reserves first, sells second. That sequencing will be watched closely: the memory of past seasons, when export enthusiasm outran domestic supply, is fresh in the market.

With inflation at 6.2% and mealie meal prices easing, maize is one part of the economy where the macro statistics and the dinner table are finally telling the same story. Keeping it that way is the test of the export season.