Online Reporter
Word From The Market
Tina Nleya
ZIMBABWE has taken a decisive step towards securing its food future with the gazetting of Statutory Instrument (SI) 87 of 2025 on the importation of grains, oilseeds and related products.
While the policy has sparked debate, it represents a well-considered move to protect local farmers, ensure processors access affordable grain and build long-term resilience in the country’s agricultural value chain.
The new framework is part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to sustain the gains of the Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy, a key pillar in attaining Vision 2030.
It reflects a careful balance between allowing controlled imports and strengthening local production through contract farming, value chain financing and improved market systems.
New framework
Under SI 87 of 2025, the importation of maize, wheat, soya beans, sunflower and their by-products will now operate under a structured, transparent system.
The goal is simple: to protect farmers while ensuring millers and processors have adequate supplies to keep the nation fed and industries running.
To oversee this, a Grains and Oilseeds Technical Committee has been reconstituted under the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA).
The 18-member committee comprising farmer organisations, processors, industry experts and Government representatives will review data on national grain production, recommend import quotas where necessary and promote fair trade practices in the sector.
An oversight committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, will ensure that all decisions align with Government policy, while an Agriculture Revolving Fund Management Committee will administer resources collected from importation fees to strengthen domestic production.
One of the central features of SI 87 is its mandatory local sourcing requirement.
Importers, be they millers, processors or traders, must demonstrate that at least 40 percent of their raw material needs come from contract farming arrangements with Zimbabwean producers.
This threshold will rise to 60 percent in 2026, 80 percent in 2027 and finally reach 100 percent by 2028.
The aim is to anchor all value chain actors in local production.
When industries invest directly in farmers through contracts, the benefits multiply: guaranteed markets for producers, stable supply for processors and predictable prices for consumers.
For decades, Zimbabwe’s grain marketing has oscillated between liberalised and State-controlled systems.
The new approach seeks to blend the best of both: encouraging private participation while maintaining oversight to prevent market abuse.
Millers are now encouraged to procure directly from farmers through 1 804 Grain Marketing Board (GMB) collection points countrywide, where smallholder farmers deliver their harvests in small quantities.
This aggregation model reduces post-harvest losses and ensures rural producers are integrated into formal markets.
GMB itself will now focus on its Strategic Grain Reserve mandate — managing national stocks for social welfare and price stabilisation — while millers and processors meet their commercial needs through private contracts and imports approved under the new framework.
Lessons from grain-sufficient nations
Zimbabwe’s approach under SI 87 aligns with policies adopted by other African nations that have successfully moved towards grain self-sufficiency.
In Ethiopia, for instance, grain security has been achieved through a mix of contract farming, irrigation expansion and strict control over import licensing.
The Ethiopian government incentivised processors who source directly from local farmers, while investing in warehouses and cooperatives to strengthen domestic trade.
Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme, paired with consistent grain marketing policies, has also boosted maize production to surplus levels in most years.
Importantly, Malawi enforces data-based planning, tracking national stocks before permitting imports — an approach echoed in Zimbabwe’s data-driven technical committee.
Meanwhile, Egypt, one of Africa’s largest wheat producers, combines import quotas with domestic purchase guarantees that ensure farmers receive fair prices.
Through its agricultural bank and national procurement agencies, Egypt channels import revenues into farmer financing and irrigation projects — precisely the model Zimbabwe is now embedding through its Agricultural Revolving Fund.
These countries demonstrate that grain sufficiency is not achieved through bans or open borders alone; it is attained through structured coordination, farmer inclusion and reinvestment in production.
Balancing farmers’ interests and marketability
At the heart of SI 87 lies a pragmatic philosophy: Imports are not the enemy, but they must serve the country’s production goals, not undermine them.
The idea is to ensure that importers cannot profit at the expense of local farmers.
By linking import permits to local contracting, the system builds accountability and reduces arbitrage.
AMA’s oversight role — verifying permits, monitoring compliance and enforcing fair trade practices — provides the transparency needed to maintain confidence across the value chain. The establishment of the Agricultural Marketing Fund will, over time, provide critical financing for smallholder irrigation schemes and value chain modernisation.
This is especially crucial in the face of climate variability, where predictable irrigation and structured markets determine whether a season succeeds or fails.
The implementation of SI 87 of 2025 is not merely an administrative reform; it is a blueprint for Zimbabwe’s agricultural resilience.
With AMA leading coordination, supported by the technical committee and private sector partners, the country is laying a foundation for structured, transparent and inclusive grain trade.
As other African nations have shown, sustainable grain security is built on planning, partnership and persistence.
Zimbabwe is now on that path, and with every harvest, every contract and every policy aligned, the dream of full grain sufficiency draws closer.
Tina Nleya is AMA’s marketing and public relations manager. She can be contacted on email: [email protected]. Word from the Market is a column produced by AMA to promote market-driven production.
