South Africa on October 22, 2025 officially resumed shipping maize from local ports to Zimbabwe after Harare lifted an import ban.

The Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen stated that the removal of the moratorium boosts regional food security and bilateral trade. 

This follows the invoking of Statutory Instrument 87 (2025), which automatically opened the Zim market again for SA’s maize and corn.

Harare had temporarily stopped trade with its southern neighbor to favor local producers whose 2025-26 harvest forecast was at 1.3 million tonnes. 

But domestic output is not enough because consumption is at 2 million tonnes, leaving room for imports.

Although the ban significantly reduced Zimbabwe’s 2024-25 and 2025-26 imports from South Africa, trade apparently continued behind the lines. 

Conversely, in the October 3 week, Zim imported 52% of the 42,000 tonnes of maize SA shipped that week, per economist Wandile Sihlobo.

Zimbabwe’s imports from SA clocked 34,093 tonnes in the September 25-October 3 week, suggesting a porous ban.

Stock Situation in SA  

South Africa is happy that its traditionally big importer is back because there is a looming home surplus this season.

After a 2024-25 annual production downturn of 22% owing to midsummer’s aridity, SA expects a slim output rebound in 2025-26.

A May 2025 Africa Agriculture Watch outlook report forecast national maize production to increase by 3% above 2024’s, to 15.3 million tonnes.

Half the production regions including Northern Cape will see annual rises while the other half including Mpumalanga will experience falls. 

In export terms, South Africa might export 2.2 million tonnes of white and yellow maize in the 2025-26 season. By October 20, 2025, it had already shipped 684,723 tonnes out this target. 

In the 2024-25 season, total maize exports trickled down to a mere 971,000 tonnes due to drought, forcing imports. 

By December 2024, yellow maize rates in South Africa had upped by 43% above those of February 2024 while white maize by 70%.

In ordinary situations, Zimbabwe imports 14% of SA’s maize but this did not happen  in the 2024-25 season. Could this revert now that the moratorium is over? The stats below explore this question through trade data on maize from South Africa into Zimbabwe.

South Africa Maize Trade with Zimbabwe Statistics 

Between 2000 and 2024, South Africa exported between 534,000 tonnes (2007-8) and 4.06 million tonnes (2021-22) of maize annually. Most years, Zimbabwe has been a top 5 export destination, accounting for 14% of the shipments.

In 2023, Zimbabwe shipped in 295,275 tonnes of maize from South Africa, according to the World Bank. The shipment was worth approximately $82.18 million, the third highest by country after Japan’s and Korea’s. Among African destinations, only Mozambique with 251,982 tonnes came near in import volumes from South Africa.

During the 2023-24 export period when Zimbabwe was escalating imports, South Africa in turn was nursing a 22.5% maize production downturn. To cover this gap, Pretoria had to import the grain for the first time in years. 

For annual maize imports from all origins, Zimbabwe normally averages 300k tonnes while South Africa around 200 tonnes. In 2023, for example, Zimbabwe imported 379,367 tonnes of maize. This is even as South Africa ordered about 260.2 tonnes, according to the World Bank.