GMB rents space from private companies

Elita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
Farmers have delivered 80 000 tonnes of wheat to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), forcing the parastatal to rent space from some private companies due to silo storage capacity challenges.

GMB has so far received 1 140 000 tonnes of maize and 34 000 tonnes of small grains from farmers. Its cylindrical silos have a capacity of 700 000 tonnes of grain while hard stands have a capacity of 3 million tonnes.

GMB general manager Mr Rockie Mutenha on Tuesday said they were still accepting grain from farmers and urged them not to sell to middlemen.

“The target for wheat deliveries is 135 000 tonnes from the Agritex crop assessment report,” he said. “We are at 95 percent in terms of farmers’ payments. Farmers should continue bringing grain to GMB and not to listen to speculators who are claiming that they can help them sell their crop.”