A sharp rise in food import spending has underscored Botswana’s deepening struggle to meet its own food needs, with new trade data showing that the country spent P9.2 billion on imported food between January and August 2025. The figures highlight widening gaps in domestic production at a time when climate pressures, weak processing capacity and slow sectoral transformation continue to undermine agricultural output.
Local production from farms and food processors has shown little improvement this year, pushing up imports across nearly all major food categories. Cereals alone accounted for P1.6 billion, with heavy reliance on maize, rice, wheat and sorghum. Spending on beverages, spirits and vinegar reached P1.4 billion, driven by imports of beer, bottled water, fermented drinks, vinegar, spirits, whiskies, vodka and wine. Further expenditures included P817.8 million on cereal preparations, flour, starch and milk-based products; P796.4 million on sugar and confectionery; P752.3 million on vegetable, fruit, nut and plant preparations; P706.3 million on miscellaneous edible preparations; P535.8 million on animal and vegetable fats; P529.6 million on dairy products, eggs and natural honey; P461.8 million on prepared animal fodder; P316.9 million on fruits and nuts and P306 million on coffee, tea, mate and spices.
Analysts from the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture attribute the rising import bill to a steep fall in rain-fed crop production, which declined by 74 percent between 2021/2022 and 2023/2024 due to adverse weather conditions. They note that the crop sector is supplying just 17.3 percent of national food demand, leaving Botswana with a significant food deficit. While the irrigated crop sector faces its own challenges, they argue that it offers meaningful potential for expanding domestic output, especially for crops unsuited to rain-fed systems. They also stress the urgent need to modernise food processing infrastructure, pointing out that dependence on imported processed foods particularly for the tourism sector continues to inflate costs.
The analysts identify several growth opportunities that could help reduce the country’s heavy reliance on imports. “Emerging areas include rice cultivation in zones like Okavango and Chobe and the commercial potential of safflower as a drought-resilient crop for oil, feed and soil health. These opportunities, backed by research and targeted pilot programs, can diversify and fortify the sector. The oil crop sub-sector, especially sunflower, groundnuts, and safflower, has strong potential to reduce dependency on imported cooking oil. However, a lack of local processing infrastructure forces most of the sunflower output to be exported,” explained analysts.
Beyond crop production, they highlight dairy and beekeeping as areas that could ease import pressures if better supported. The dairy sector currently supplies only 12 percent of Botswana’s estimated 65 million litres of annual milk demand, hampered by declining cattle numbers, high operational costs, limited land access and weak market opportunities for smallholder farmers. The country’s honey demand stands at 62 tonnes annually, with local production covering less than 20 percent. The Ministry warns that limited access to equipment and processing facilities, coupled with increasing agrochemical use, is undermining the growth of the beekeeping sector.
Under the new National Development Plan (NDP 12), the government aims to reposition agriculture as a stronger and more competitive industry capable of lifting domestic production and lowering the food import burden. The plan prioritises raising output in cereals, dairy, fruits and vegetables, the very commodities dominating the import bill. Food imports made up 21.7 percent of all imports in 2024 and the government intends to reduce this to 13.7 percent by 2029/2030, signalling a decisive push to reverse the country’s growing dependence on external supplies.
