Staff Reporter

The Grain Marketing Board (GMB), has recorded improved grain stocks as at 14 of May 2023. According to statistics released by the board, grain stocks stood at 248 926 metric tonnes.

A source who had no authority to speak on behalf of the parastatal said, “The grain stocks comprise of 210 166mt of maize and 38 760mt of traditional grains. Millers and stock feed manufacturers are allocated 27 000mt of maize and 700mt sorghum per month, respectively.”

The source added that the improvement in grain deliveries would last for three months or more which would improve household food self-sufficiency.

The source said that treasury had disbursed ZW$ 3.2 billion to the GMB to settle outstanding payments to transporters moving grain distributed by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW). This was after the distribution of grain had halted since April 2023 as transporters were refusing to continue transporting grain without payment of their dues.

Following the resumption of haulage, the DSW is expected to continue distributing grain to food insecure households until the end of May.

The improvement in grain stocks over the past month is a positive show of good agricultural output over the past three years.