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Midlands Bureau Chief
THE Grain Marketing Board has intensified its programme of value adding various grains and widened its product range as a way of consolidating its place in the food processing industry, GMB general manager, Mr Albert Mandizha has said.
In an interview in Gweru, Mr Mandizha said the GMB now has a range of 12 products on the market ever since it went commercial in 1996.
He said the board will be introducing peanut butter before the end of the year as its 13th product.
“We intend to continue expanding our product range. We have 12 products at the moment and we will be adding peanut butter as the 13th product before year-end. Our target is to have 15 different products on the market in the near future. The idea to introduce peanut butter came after we realised a good harvest of groundnuts last season through contract farming. We harvested 600 000 tonnes of groundnuts,” he said.
Mr Mandizha said the GMB was trading in all the grains produced in the country as it was the buyer of last resort.
Some of the GMB’s range of products include mealie-meal, rice, samp, sugar beans, stock feeds, flour, coffee, mixed fruit jam and maputi.
The board has taken a leading role in support of the agrarian reform by supporting farmers to grow cash crops such as soyabeans, sunflower, sugarbeans, sorghum and millet among others, through its agricultural inputs scheme.
Mr Mandizha said the concept of manufacturing and diversifying into the new products business by the GMB was a bold initiative which was in line with the on-going expansion of the commercial business to ensure viability and self-sustenance.
“These business activities will be run at no cost to Government. We are able to sustain our operations through our commercial wing without straining treasury. However, the introduction of new products is not cast in stone. It’s matched by what is happening on the agricultural sector and other factors. For example, last season we had a good groundnuts crop and we are now moving into peanut butter manufacturing.
“We do value addition and we keep on reviewing our range of products.
“We might need to chop some of the products or even add new ones depending on the circumstances,” he said.
Mr Mandizha said the GMB has 84 depots spread throughout the country which it utilised in launching its commercial operations.
The GMB is a 100 percent Government owned entity operating under the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.
Online Reporter