Grain deliveries top 590k tonnes

The Grain Marketing Board has received 590 000 tonnes of grain from farmers since the opening of the marketing season on April 1.

The parastatal has also started procuring five million grain bags to assist farmers to deliver their maize to its depots.

GMB general manager, Mr Rockie Mutenha, yesterday said the grain marketing season was now at its peak and more farmers were delivering their grain to their depots.

“We have received 550 000 tonnes of maize, 10 000 tonnes of small grains, and 32 000 tonnes of soyabeans and payments are going on well,” said Mr Mutenha. “The current deliveries are higher than the 400 000 tonnes that had been delivered by farmers during the same period last year.

“We are paying farmers within three days as we are receiving money from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Farmers are getting their money through their bank accounts.”

There are concerns that some farmers have been duped into selling their crop at low prices by unscrupulous buyers, who later on sell to GMB.

Some dealers are buying grain from farmers at $150 per tonne and later selling it to GMB at $390 per tonne.

Mr Mutenha said there was no need for farmers to sell their grain to middlemen, as GMB was paying a higher price within a short period of time.

He said GMB was having challenges with some farmers in Glendale who were selling their grain to middlemen when they were closer to the GMB depot, which was paying a higher price.

“GMB is buying maize, red sorghum, white sorghum, rapoko and millet at $390 per tonne,” said Mr Mutenha. “The parastatal is also buying soyabeans at $780 per tonne.

“Our deliveries intensify between July and August. We have also procured 740 moisture metres, which have been distributed to all depots to assist farmers in testing the moisture content of their grain. This season we are not having challenges with moisture content levels as was the case with the past seasons.”

Mr Mutenha said GMB was opening grain collection depots closer to farmers and these will also be equipped with the moisture metres.

“We are managing the issue of moisture content well,” he said. “Most farmers are delivering grain that is between 11 and 12.5 percent moisture content.”

Mr Mutenha said there have been some challenges with packaging material, which is in short supply, but Government had allowed them to buy from local suppliers.

“We were having challenges, but the State Procurement Board gave us the dispensation to buy from local manufacturers,” he said. “We were allowed to buy five million bags and we have already issued out purchase order and we are expecting the bags starting from next week.”

Mr Mutenha said farmers could also provide their own bags and GMB will pay for them.

“Farmers who want to deliver their grain and are far away from silos can transport their grain to the nearest depot and GMB will take over costs of ferrying the grain to a silo depot,” he said.