Resentment of European Union imposed sanctions on Zanu-PF officials has led the Zimbabwe government to reject efforts to bolster coffee production in the country’s rich eastern highlands.
The rejection of a â,¬3-million lifeline for coffee growers is likely to be the death knell for the sector.
”The feeling inside the government is that anybody seen dealing with the EU, which has slapped the entire Zanu-PF party leadership with travel bans, is a sell out, even if the country stands to get the much-needed foreign currency,” a senior government official in the ministry of finance said. ”There is a stupid feeling that the government cannot benefit from dirty money from Europe, they have to lift sanctions first,” he said, ”yet they forget they are the ones that are losing out,” he added.
The Zimbabwean government rejected the EU’s demand that in exchange for the funds, it provide guarantees that there will be no farm disruptions in the coffee-rich Manicaland province.
Of the 180 commercial coffee growers in Zimbabwe in 2000, only a paltry 13 are left, three of whom received government eviction notices two months ago. Commercial coffee production, which was an estimated 18 000 tonnes prior to 2000, has dropped to about 500 tonnes this year, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said in a recent report.
”There will be no coffee industry in 18 months’ time to talk about,” said an economist privy to confidential correspondence between the Central Bank and the commercial farmers union. ”The EU is throwing a lifeline, but nobody is listening or concerned,” said the economist.
Xavier Marchal, the head of the EC in Zimbabwe, discussed EU assistance to coffee growers with several members of the Cabinet as well as representatives of the Commercial Farmer’s Union (CFU) earlier this year.
At the time, Marchal emphasised the need to resuscitate the ailing coffee industry and provide funds for growers to restore production. But he stipulated that the â,¬3-million assistance package would only be released if the government gave assurances that there wouldn’t be disruptions in the eastern highlands farmlands.
”[Didymus] Mutasa [the minister of lands and intelligence] said ‘No’ to conditions,” a senior government official privy to the deliberations told the M&G. ”He [Mutasa] said you may as well take your money and stick it,” he said.
Despite EU insistence that the government accept the offer, Mutasa ”never responded to EU inquiries” until Marchal contacted central bank governor Gideon Gono the official said.
”A meeting was arranged between Gono and [the] EU ambassador, but Gono never honoured his promises to look into the matter to date,” he added.
The country is facing an acute shortage of foreign currency that has resulted in power cuts and persistent shortages of goods ranging from fuel to fertilizer, severely damaging the agricultural sector.
According to a recent CFU report, the outlook for agriculture in 2007 remains gloomy. Among other things, the massive drop in tobacco exports from 237 tonnes in 2001 to 55kg in 2006 has deprived the country of much-needed foreign currency to finance agricultural inputs.
This week Zimbabwe imported 100 tonnes of maize — the country’s staple food — from neighbouring Zambia at a cost of $24-million.