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Food prices to stay low in 2020 over ‘good’ harvests, but floods expected

Wednesday November 13 2019
Food prices to stay low

Rwanda has predicted average harvests from December 2019 to February 2020. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA

By JOHNSON KANAMUGIRE

Food security in the country is expected to improve with favourable harvests predicted for the December 2019 to February 2020 period.

The October 2019 to May 2020 monitoring report by Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) shows that prices of staple foods will remain low, allowing poor households to meet their basic food and non-food needs.

The news could be a reprieve for households in the drier Eastern and Southern Districts where soil fertility is low, and who are already facing hunger following a decline in their food reserves over the past months.

Government has been providing food aid to a number of families in Bugesera and Kayonza,with local officials saying that the support will continue until the 2020 harvest season.

However, despite the positive agricultural production outlook, heavy rains remain a concern and are expected to cause flooding in lowlands and valleys across the country.

“Government and humanitarian partners are expected to actively prepare to respond rapidly,” notes the FEWS Net report.

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A regional outlook shows that food access for poor households has remained generally unfavorable due to limitations in cross-border trade.

The October 2019 East Africa Cross Border Trade Bulletin cites poor economic conditions and border restrictions as having caused prices of key staple food commodities to rise. Affected items include maize, bananas and beans.

The report however shows that exports from Tanzania to Rwanda remained stable at higher levels while maize from Tanzania and Zambia continued to replace supplies from Uganda.

The same applied to sorghum, rice and dry beans.

Fews Net and East African Grain Council data show that the price of maize, the cereal most consumed in Rwanda, has been rising since June and reached a five-year average in August and September.

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