By JAMES KUNDA? – –
CLASSIFIED grain buyers are still active in the maize market despite the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) having closed the crop marketing exercise last week.
Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ) executive director Jacob Mwale said in an interview that members were still buying maize from the last harvest season to mop up whatever excess of the grain was in circulation.
“We are still active in the market, still buying the maize until a certain point when the available stock is mopped up somewhere around late next month,” he said.
Mr Mwale said the association had secured enough storage facilities for its members to house the grain being supplied by the farmers.
He said as at September 19, 2014, the private buyers had procured and resold 250,000 tonnes of maize out of the targeted 700,000 tonnes.
Mr Mwale attributed the slow purchase levels to uncertainty in the market given that other crops like wheat were as lucrative as maize.
GTAZ, which is currently buying maize at US$300 per tonne, usually procures maize from farmers along the line of rail and resells the grain to the processors in form of millers.
Meanwhile, Mr Mwale said there was no immediate reason for the country to import wheat as a recent survey by the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) had indicated a surplus in production.
“According to ZNFU estimates, we expect a harvest of 294,000 tonnes of wheat which is sufficient to ensure that the country does not import any of this commodity,” he said.