By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
For the first three months of 2023, the country spent N$111.1 million to import 10 of its most consumed horticultural products.
This is detailed in the 2023 first-quarter Agriculture and Fishing Indicators Statistical Bulletin released by the Namibia Statistics Agencylast week.
The most imported horticulture products for the three months are apples, vegetables, onions, bananas, grapes, plantations, and cooking bananas, tomatoes, oranges, avocados, carrots and turnips.
Apples worth N$24.8 million were imported, followed by vegetable seeds and onions valued at N$20.8 million and N$13.4 million, respectively.
The countrybought N$11,6 million worth of bananas from outside.
On the export side of the basket, it is not as diversified as import.
Grape topped the export list recording foreign earnings of N$79.9 million during the quarter under review, followed by dates and tomatoes which brought in N$58.2 million and N$19.8 million, respectively.
Various bean exports brought in N$10 million, while onions exports brought in N$5,9 million.
Other horticultural produce from the country brought in N$3,4 million from export.
The agronomic side of the crops was dominated by the controlled products, such as white maize, millet and wheat.
The distribution of agronomy production in the first quarter of 2023 remains similar to that of the same quarter of 2022, whereby white maize production (1,293 tonnes) topped the list, followed by wheat production (501 tonnes).
Production of millet (301 tonnes) was the lowest albeit recording the highest increase relative to the 100 tonnes registered in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
From what is produced in the agronomy sub-sector the country has exported grain valued at N$311.3 thousand.
For export, mainly maize was exported to the value of N$311,1 during the review quarter.
Angola was the main destination for Namibia’s agronomy products recording foreign earnings of N$311.0 million, a share of 99.9%.
While the import bill for grains during the same period amounted to N$518,3 million.
The maize and wheat grains contributed the highest to the import bill, amounting to N$362.0 million and N$135.2 million, respectively.
The grain import was mainly sourced from South Africa N$445,2 million (85.9%), Latvia N$61,2 million (11.8%), and India N$10,8 million (2.1%).
The bulletin is a short-term performance of the sectors by looking at the production of crops, fish landings, international merchandise trade patterns, and auction price development quarterly.
Agriculture, fishingand forestry are important sectors in terms of employment creation, contribution to GDP, foreign earnings and food security.
In 2022, the sectors grew by 2.6% in real value added and on average contributes 7.9% to GDP over the last 10 years. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
More Than N$110Million Spent On Horticulture Import In 3 Months
