BY PHESHEYA KUNENE | EDITOR
MANZINI — Eswatini’s agricultural union is demanding immediate government intervention after locally produced beans worth more than E9 million continued to sit unsold in National Maize Corporation storage facilities, with farmers warning that the crisis could collapse confidence in the country’s grain sovereignty programme ahead of a new planting season.
The Eswatini National Agricultural Union Chief Executive Officer Tammy Dlamini said the situation was “shocking and disappointing” and called on government to treat the matter as a national agricultural emergency.
“Government needs to urgently step in and fix this problem,” Dlamini said. “We still believe this situation can be corrected before it is too late. Local farmers and local produce must become the priority.”
A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
Dlamini said the bean standoff was no longer simply a pricing problem — it had become a question of whether farmers could trust government’s commitment to supporting domestic production.
He warned that with a new farming season approaching, the failure to clear existing stock would discourage producers who had expanded bean cultivation in direct response to His Majesty King Mswati III’s grain sovereignty programme.
“What happens when NMC starts collecting new produce while old stock is still sitting in storage?” he said. “Farmers are frustrated because the whole system appears broken.”
PROCUREMENT REFORM AT THE CENTRE OF ESNAU’S DEMANDS
Central to ESNAU’s call for action is the reform of public procurement. Dlamini argued that government feeding schemes — including school feeding programmes — should be sourcing locally produced beans before any imports are considered.
“Money is being allocated to supply beans in programmes like school feeding, yet we already have the produce in the country,” he said. “Government and NMC must control what they can control.”
He also questioned why temporary import restrictions introduced earlier this year were reversed within weeks, without any formal communication to producers.
“Restrictions were put in place for less than two weeks, then suddenly lifted. Farmers were never properly informed why,” Dlamini said.
He further raised concerns about the origin and quality of imported beans entering the market from countries including China and Australia, questioning the shelf life of produce by the time it reaches Eswatini consumers.
FARMERS ECHO THE CALL
Producers across the sector say the situation is untenable.
Farmer Nkosinathi Dlamini called for imports to be restricted outright, while acknowledging the need to keep prices accessible to consumers. Mayindisa Farm pointed to the structural disadvantage smallholder farmers face against large-scale foreign producers.
“A farmer producing on 2,000 hectares with their own machinery spends far less per hectare than a local farmer operating on three hectares using hired equipment,” the farmer said.
Temashayina Manana urged the Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen procurement protections and invest in consumer awareness campaigns encouraging citizens to buy locally. Mbuso Dlamini said the emotional toll on farmers was real.
“Local farmers work hard to feed the nation. It is painful to see imported products filling shelves while local beans remain in storage,” he said.
GOVERNMENT AND NMC YET TO ACT
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Sydney Simelane acknowledged the urgency of the matter, saying the ministry was awaiting a comprehensive report before determining its course of action.
“We will engage all relevant stakeholders to find a solution,” Simelane said.
NMC Communications Officer Lungelo Nkambule said the corporation was still compiling its detailed report and would respond in due course.
The responses have done little to reassure producers, who say the time for reports has passed.
THE STAKES
The bean crisis lands at a pivotal moment. Government has spent the past five years aggressively promoting crop diversification and domestic grain production to reduce import dependency and strengthen food resilience against climate shocks and rising global food prices.
Regional competition, however, continues to undercut those ambitions. South Africa’s large-scale mechanised farming sector consistently produces grains and legumes at prices local smallholders cannot match — a structural gap that policy alone has struggled to bridge.
Industry voices say what is needed now is not another report, but a coordinated policy response that aligns procurement, import management, storage logistics and producer support into a coherent framework — before the next harvest arrives and the crisis compounds itself.
