Stefanus Nashama
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), in its statistical bulletin, says during the first quarter of 2023, the total export of agronomy products was valued at N$311.3 million, while the import bill for the same period amounted to N$518.3 million.
NSA Statistician-General and Chief Executive Officer, Alex Shimuafeni released this in the quarterly agriculture, and fishing indicators statistical bulletin, this month.
According to him, the NSA indicates that Maize was exported to the value of N$311.1 during the review quarter, mainly for export. In terms of import of agronomy products, Maize and Wheat contributed the highest to the import bill, amounting to N$362.0 million and N$135.2 million, respectively.
The bulletin reveals that Angola was the main destination for Namibia’s agronomy products recording foreign earnings of N$311.0 thousand (a share of 99.9 percent), while import was mainly sourced from South Africa N$445.2 million (a share of 85.9 percent), Latvia N$61.2 million (share of 11.8 percent) and India N$10.8 million.
This indicates that 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 tons) topped the list, followed by wheat production (501 tons).
Production of millet (301 tons) was the lowest albeit recording the highest increase relative to the 100 tons registered in the corresponding quarter of 2022, the bulletin shows.
The bulletin further indicates that Namibia-controlled agronomy products recorded during the first quarter of 2023 were 2 095 tons, higher when compared to 1 939 tons registered in the corresponding quarter of 2022, with Maize posting the highest volumes of 1 293 tons (a share of 61.7 percent), while millet witnessed the highest increase of 201.0 percent when compared to the same period of 2022, the bulletin publication states.
Fish products during the review quarter are said to have attracted export earnings of N$4.0 billion, which shows an expansion of N$910.3 million when compared to the first quarter of 2022.
The import bill for fish products for the same period however reduced to N$167.9 million, the document states.
The Statistical Bulletin publication outlines the first quarter results covering a period of January 2023 to March 2023.
