More than 25 million US dollars are available for the purchase of 61,500 tons of agricultural surplus from the family sector, namely white and yellow corn, sesame, soy beans and pigeon peas and butter in the provinces of Sofala, Manica, Tete, Zambezia and Nampula, in the center and north of the country.
The process, to be streamlined for the first time this year, through Mozgrain, based in Beira, has already culminated with the installation in the contemplated areas, of posts and warehouses for agricultural commercialization, in order to maximize the use of the silo complex.
The sales manager of that strategic partner of the Government in this component, Ronaldo Naico, stressed that this is happening in parallel with the investments in the rehabilitation of silos and warehouses that his institution was recently given by the Government in a public-private partnership way.
Speaking a few days ago in the town of Gorongosa, at the launch of this year’s agricultural marketing campaign, the source stressed that, basically, it is intended that at the end of the works in progress, the capacity in grain supply will be increased by about 55 thousand tons.
In a first phase it is foreseen that starting this year, the silos in Nhamatanda and Gorongosa will begin to receive cereals, while others will be supplied later, greatly boosting the rural economy.
For this reason, there are great expectations for producers, the private sector, and the Government in the commercialization of agricultural surpluses, at a time when there are still challenges related to the low quality of the grain, especially corn, high humidity during the harvest, and low production capacity on the part of farmers.
Naico understands that agricultural commercialization represents an opportunity for agribusiness and is a dynamic factor for the industry, and for this there is a need for investment at the level of producers and access roads for the flow of the peasants’ surplus.
Therefore, the Secretary of State in Sofala, Stella Zeca, appealed to a bigger participation of the farmers in this process of commercialization of the agricultural surplus in order to reach the provincial target of 1.051.459 tons of cereals.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade signed last March 12, concession contracts for the management of cereals and pulses silos and warehouses complexes, for a period of between 15 and 20 years, under a public-private partnership regime with the companies Agrobusiness, Mozambique, Limitada and Mozgrain, Limitada.
Agrobusiness, Mozambique, Limitada, based in the city of Nampula will manage the complexes of silos and warehouses in Iapala and Malema, in the province of Nampula and Cuamba in the province of Niassa.
The company Mozgrain, Limitada will manage the silo and warehouse complexes of Milange and Mugeba in Zambezia province; Gorongosa and Nhamatanda in Sofala province; Lichinga in Niassa province; Ulónguè in Tete province and Báruè in Manica.
The total storage capacity of these complexes of silos and warehouses, located in areas with agricultural potential, is 75,500 tons, and most of them will be operational as of June this year and others in the first quarter of 2022.
