Food in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's food supply includes maize, wheat and other cereals, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, beans, groundnuts, soy, sunflower, horticultural produce, livestock and fish. Households obtain food through their own production, markets, retailers, street vendors, gardening, livestock, casual work, remittances and formal or informal employment. Maize remains central to national supply. During the 2025/26 season, maize was planted on 1,898,528 hectares, while the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme covered 3,500,000 smallholder farmers. The Grain Marketing Board operates 89 depots with stated storage capacity of 4,450,940 metric tonnes and also manages grain deliveries, quality checks and payments. Sadza is commonly prepared from maize meal or small-grain meal. Traditional grain processing can include pounding and grinding millet. Other foods and drinks associated with Zimbabwe include haifiridzi, freshly caught bream, maheu, traditional beers, exotic fruit juices and Mapfura wine. Food heritage varies by community, language and region; the traditional beer brewing and Seven-Days Beer Ritual in Masvingo is one documented example. Restaurants and formal hospitality businesses operate alongside informal food vendors. In 2025, 88% of urban households reported buying food from street vendors. Tourist-facing businesses are licensed through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, but no single nationwide restaurant-price or menu standard applies. Food access changes strongly by season and infrastructure. In January to March 2026, rural cereal insecurity was estimated at about 15%, representing 1,548,432 people, with a projected need for 118,563 metric tonnes of maize grain from the Strategic Grain Reserve. Food and Nutrition Security Committees operate through 8 provincial, 42 rural-district and 260 ward structures. Government was the main support source for 65% of rural households in 2025, while 13.1% received food assistance from the United Nations or nongovernmental organizations. Formal Grain Marketing Board purchases for households and companies use an application process; deliveries are weighed, graded and recorded before payment. Nutrition and food choices differ between rural and urban households and between provinces. In the 2025 rural survey, 59% of households had an acceptable Food Consumption Score, 35% had a borderline score and 6% had a poor score; the average dietary-diversity score was 5.4. Urban food insecurity was measured at 28% in 2025, compared with 42% in 2020. Only 11.9% of children aged 6 to 23 months met minimum acceptable diet criteria, and 43.1% consumed sweetened beverages. In rural households, cereals and oil were each consumed by 95% of households during the previous 24 hours and vegetables by 91%; reported meat consumption reached 61% in Matabeleland South and 59% in Mashonaland East. Food costs depend on province, market and household circumstances. The June 2026 Food Poverty Line was ZWG 921.72 per person per month for a minimum 2,100-kilocalorie diet, while the Total Consumption Poverty Line was ZWG 1,345.21. Food prices vary between provinces, and food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation in August 2026 was reported at 0.0% month on month in ZWG and -0.2% in US dollars. Food took 56% of rural household expenditure in 2025, compared with 39% in urban households. Zimbabwe's Constitution recognises a right to sufficient food and to safe, clean and potable water, subject to progressive fulfilment using available resources. The Food and Food Standards Act prohibits selling, importing for sale or manufacturing for sale food that is adulterated, falsely described, unwholesome or unfit. The Food Standards Advisory Board supports standards, risk analysis, certification, import and export controls, labelling and Codex-related work. Local authorities use environmental health technicians and environmental health officers for premises inspections, sampling and laboratory procedures. A 2025 rural survey found clean utensils in 80.7% of households, suitable temperature control in 34.2%, separation of raw and cooked food in 37.2%, thorough cooking in 28.4% and expiry-date checks in 64.1%; fewer than 10% checked storage instructions and 17.1% read nutrition labels. Maize-meal labelling was inconsistent, and responsibilities and enforcement remain fragmented. Food systems also face climate and environmental pressures. The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Development promotes climate-smart farming, irrigation, drought-tolerant and early-maturing crops, traditional grains, decentralised seed banks and small-scale milling across production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and waste. Post-harvest losses, limited certified traditional-grain seed and weak informal-market infrastructure remain risks. In 2025, 94.3% of rural households primarily used firewood for cooking, increasing pressure on forests.