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Conrad Mwanawashe Business Reporter
The Grain Marketing Board expects the stock feeds product range to contribute more than 30 percent to the board’s turnover. The range will rake in about $5 million per month, overtaking mealie-meal currently accounting for about 50 percent of revenue. The stock feeds product range is expected to be launched after the commissioning of the stock feeds machine slated for November. The machine will produce all feed types.

GMB has been working on the stock feeds plant since 2005 and the project requires capital injection to the tune of $30 million to be complete.
“We hope to complete the plant by December this year. It has been an on and off project in the sense that we have been unable to raise the required amount on time. We are looking at about $30 million to complete the entire project including buildings and the machine itself,” said GMB deputy general manager – Commercial Services – Mr Parirenyatwa Mano.

He said the launch of the stock feed product range will change the board’s contribution matrix.
“That matrix is set to change when we launch the stock feeds products. Our current capacity is 240 metric tonnes per day when we operate at full throttle and that should rack in about $4 million-$5 million per month,” said Mr Mano.

Maize and wheat milling will contribute about 40 percent, stock feeds business 30 percent with the balance coming from the other pre-packs
GMB commercial side is currently contributing about 30 percent of turnover bringing in an average $5 million per month.

“We have a number of new products including Silo peanut butter and we are looking at a number of new products so that we increase our product range,” said Mr Mano.

Since its launch in April, Silo peanut butter has been ‘well received’ and GMB’s challenge is meeting demand, according to Mr Mano.
“We have bought about 1000 metric tonnes of groundnuts and we are doing about 60 tonnes of peanut butter per month,” he said.
The commercial business is being driven by mealie-meal contributing about 50 percent, flour 20 percent with the rest accounted for by the various pre-packs that we produce.

GMB has been modified from being fundamentally a developmental or social institution to include being a commercially oriented commodity trading organisation.

The board is currently trading in all the grains produced in the country as it is the buyer of last resort. In addition, GMB has taken a leading role in support of the agrarian reform by supporting farmers to grow cash crops such as soyabeans, sunflower, sugarbeans, sorghum and millet through its agricultural inputs scheme.