Angola GMO ban to hurt food aid imports
January 25, 2005
Luanda - Angola's ban on imports of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has put off donors and will have an impact on efforts to provide hundreds of thousands of hungry people with food aid, a UN official said on Tuesday.
The ban allows GM food aid imports but those coming in the form of grains or seeds must be milled upon their arrival and before distribution to beneficiaries, state media said.
Prior to the ban, large amounts of Angola's maize food aid was distributed unmilled.
"Some donors have already expressed their intention to reduce donations (since the ban) because of the extra costs the milling would imply," World Food Programme spokesman Cristovao Simao said.
Nearly three years since a 27-year civil war ended in April 2002, some 900 000 Angolans still rely on WFP handouts for their survival - rations that are now threatened, he said.
The United States, the WFP's biggest food aid donor, had already reduced its donations, Simao said. The US had planned to donate 19 000 tonnes of US maize to Angola when the intention to introduce the ban was announced in early 2004, but had then reduced this to just 14 000 tonnes of sorghum.
US officials were not immediately available for comment.
Donor countries could still donate non-GMOs, milled GM maize meal or cash, allowing WFP to then buy non-GM produce in Angola and nearby countries in the region such as South Africa and Zambia, Simao said. There was enough stockpiled food aid to last until March, he said.
Some other countries in the region, including Zimbabwe, have banned genetically modified maize from entering the country but allow maize meal made from GM crops.
Leading regional producer South Africa does grow genetically modified maize - designed to be hardier than naturally occurring crops - but pockets of the country remain GM free. - Reuters
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