Faced with a latent shortage of basic products for several weeks, the Malian government suspended, on December 6, 20201, the export of agricultural products. Included in this list are cottonseed, cottonseed cakes, millet, maize, sorghum and local rice. This initiative of the National Transitional Council (CNT) joins that taken last November to reduce by 50% the taxable base for the importation of basic necessities at an estimated cost of 18 billion FCFA (about 31 million dollars) but without this being able to halt, three weeks later, the upward spiral in the prices of oil, sugar, milk and meat.
The latter product was subsidized between June and July 2021 through an agreement between the state and the butchers’ union. According to the agreement, the government agreed to pay a subsidy of 45,000 FCFA per carcass of beef slaughtered, a condition for setting the kilo of beef between 2,300 and 2,800 FCFA. A month later, the measure had bled the state and caused (unexpectedly) the price of meat to skyrocket. Faced with the backlash of the market, the CNT used the old scapegoat policy. Behind the scenes, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Mahmoud Ould Mohamed (photo), an executive of the Azawad Coordination Movement (CMA), is accused of having lost the battle against the rise in the base prices cited but also flour and bread.
These various decisions taken by the president of the transition, Assimi Goita, reflect a tense situation on the ground with jihadist incursions which go beyond the North to the Center to get closer to the Office du Niger, the main rice growing area, and an army which is slow to sound the counter-offensive. Mali imports 70% of its food needs and apprehends with concern the threats of sanction from ECOWAS and the International Community. Since the beginning of November, most of the imported products had stocks of less than 30 days of consumption. In addition to this tense domestic situation, there is an international context marked by soaring prices of the main basic products, such as sugar, up 30% (at a rate of one tonne at 524 dollars), wheat ( 40% increase) or even (oil, milk and flour. A landlocked country, Mali receives its imports mainly from the ports of Dakar and Abidjan, incurring additional logistical costs linked to land transport.
