Grain traders buy less maize

GRAIN traders have bought 1.3 million tonnes of maize from the national produce in the 2016/2017 marketing season, a reduction from the 1.9 million tonnes bought during the previous maize marketing season.

Grain Traders Association of Zambia, executive director, Chambuleni Simwinga has attributed the decrease in maize purchase to logistical challenges in exporting maize. Mr. Simwinga described the export of maize in the last marketing season as challenging due to the distance between Zambia and East Africa which was the only available market for export. Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr. Simwinga said most traders declined exporting their maize to East Africa due to the costs attached to transport and other logistics. “The year 2017 was bad for the export of maize because the only market is in East Africa and then when you look at the logistics and the costs it does not make sense to the traders,” he said. Mr. Simwinga said the challenges allowed the traders to only export about 60, 000 tonnes of maize into East Africa. He however said traders have since diverted their concentration from the export market and have since concentrated on the local market which includes millers and local processors. “This past year was not so good because neighbouring countries had good rains leading to bumper harvests and this deprived traders of their potential market for maize,” Mr. Simwinga said. He however said trade is expected to improve between February and March since much of the stocks in neighbouring countries will run out.” And commenting on the 2017/2018 farming season, Mr Simwinga said there is a possibility of a drought and that the country is threatened with a maize shortage. He noted that delayed distribution of farming inputs will also affect the production of maize this year.