GMB owes transporters US$800 000

of maize to grain-short areas.
GMB general manager Mr Albert Mandizha said on Friday that Treasury had not yet released money for the programme while another US$300 000 was needed for this month’s deliveries.
The parastatal needs to allocate at least US$30 000 for each distressed province every month for the transport of grain.
The GMB has so far moved 1 51,867 tonnes of grain to nine provinces.
“Grain is being moved from the country’s 84 depots to wards in all provinces, which has also seen the uptake move from 18 percent as of March 17 to 52,4 percent at the moment,” said Mr Mandizha.
He attributed the slow uptake of grain to the price of US$16 per 50kg bag of maize, which most people are finding too expensive even though it is far less than commercial price.
“The grain is now there at selling points in the wards but the issue of accessibility remains the biggest challenge.
“Households are finding it difficult to raise the asking price while the GMB is facing transport challenges as some of the roads are very bad and transporters are reluctant to release their vehicles,” he said.
The scope of the programme has now grown beyond the GMB’s capacity in terms of capital requirements.
“The situation is dire in districts like Chivi of Masvingo, Mbire of Mashonaland Central and Beitbridge of Matabeleland South,” said Mr Mandizha.
The GMB has enough maize for the programme after an intake of 245 000 tonnes last season plus a carryover of almost 30 000 tonnes from the previous season, which makes the 35 000 tonnes required for the programme easily manageable.
“Our grain balance sheet is healthy. We only need to move it to the people. The Social Welfare department for instance, was supposed to buy 50 000 tonnes from us as instructed by Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made but they have not.
“Part of the money supposed to be generated from the sale could also have been committed to the movement of grain to all areas,” Mr Mandizha added.
Last month Government instructed the GMB to move grain from its depots to all provinces facing food shortages to make it easily accessible to the people.