Staff Reporter

Grain millers in the country have halted grain imports to transform their operations, following the bumper harvest achieved during the 2020/21 summer cropping season. As Government manages to restore the national food security status.

According to Grain Millers, the past two years have seen improved operations due to the sufficient grain produced last year.

National Foods Executive Chipo Nheta revealed that the biggest miller in the country managed to supply the market without importing grain, a development which they last experienced years ago.

“In prior years the company relied heavily on imports, in 2021 and even now things have been different as we are sourcing our maize on the local market from GMB deports. This has also helped to stabilise prices due to the containment of imported inflation,” she said.

 Blue Ribbon Foods, echoed the same sentiments, praising the positive impact of the Pfumvudza/Intwasa and Command Agriculture programmes on their operations.

“Our capacity utilisation has received a big boost owing to the bumper harvest and all our milling plants are operating at full installed capacity as the availability of key grain was enough to sustain that,” said Kedarnathrao Bedire, Blue Ribbon Foods representative.

Wheat output broke the 300 thousand tonne mark for the first time in years, just 25 percent short of the national requirement of 400 thousand tonnes, with millers agreeing that the resultant foreign currency savings have allowed them to retool.

Due to successive droughts experienced in recent years, Zimbabwe has been importing an average of 100 000 tonnes of maize per month from the region as well as South America