The Sunday Mail
Aaron Charungwa-Moyo
THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has paid farmers $5 billion for grain deliveries since the beginning of the marketing season on April 1.
Farmers have since sold 25 000 tonnes of maize, 6 000 tonnes of sorghum, 3 600 tonnes of soyabean and 2 300 tonnes of sunflower. GMB is paying US$335 for a tonne of maize, with US$135 of that amount being paid in the local currency at the prevailing interbank exchange rate.
Soyabean is fetching US$580 per tonne, with US$348 being paid in forex and the rest in Zimbabwe dollars. Farmers are being paid US$696 for a tonne of sunflower, with the equivalent of US$278 being settled in the local currency.
GMB chief executive officer Dr Edson Badarai said the parastatal was finalising arrangements to pay farmers the foreign currency portion of their earnings.
“In terms of payments for grain, we have $5 billion that has been paid to farmers and efforts are being made to clear the outstanding US dollar component. As efforts are being made to clear the outstanding foreign currency component, we are expecting more deliveries.”
During the same period last year, GMB bought 21 097 tonnes of maize and 2 636 tonnes of sorghum. GMB has introduced a “grain swap” arrangement, under which farmers can surrender specified grains in exchange for maize.
“From the grain swap modalities, which are already in place, we are waiting for farmers to start delivering under the swap arrangement.
“To date, no meaningful volumes have been exchanged, but we anticipate more exchanges towards November, when the majority
will need maize, especially those from dry areas.
“With farmers in dry regions such as Mbire and Muzarabani being supported exclusively for traditional grain production, the GMB will be allowing them to swap one tonne of traditional grain for maize, so they can include some white sadza into their diet,” said Dr Badarai.
Last week, The Sunday Mail witnessed farmers queuing to deliver their grain at GMB’s Murombedzi depot. Depot supply chain manager Mr George Dube said grain deliveries are expected to start improving this month.
“Between April and June last year, we received 66,4 tonnes of maize, 1,1 tonnes of sunflower, 8,4 tonnes of red sorghum, 0,7 tonnes of groundnuts and 0,2 tonnes of soya beans at this depot,” he said.
“During the same period this year, we received 125,4 tonnes of maize, 10,2 tonnes of sunflower, 0,5 tonnes of red sorghum, 0,6 tonnes of groundnuts and 0,3 tonnes of soya beans.”
The depot is located in Zvimba West and serves farming communities spanning local communal areas and the new resettlement area of Marahwa, as well as the old resettlement area of Zowa.
