The Mozambican government has restructured and revived the Mozambique Grain Institute (IGM) with enhanced powers to coordinate the marketing of all agricultural produce.

On Wednesday, Trade and Industry minister Max Tonela told parliament that apart from acting as the central agricultural marketing authority, the IGM would maintain strategic national grain reserves to ensure food security.

It was also designated as the “buyer of last resort” for all agricultural produce. To date, the agency has signed 51 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with agricultural value chain stakeholders to ensure the marketing of surplus produce.

Among other commodity trade targets for 2018, the ICM plans to market almost 593 000 tons of crops with priority placed on maize, beans and soya. The 2017 target for all food crops including grains, vegetables, root crops, pulses and oilseeds is 16.75 million tons.

According to overall agricultural commodity trade figures for the period January to September 2017, farmers sold at least 2.37 million tons of grains, mostly maize.

The grain deliveries fell short of the government expectations of 3.47 million tons. The root crop sub-sector supplied 2.9 million tons while 813 000 tons were delivered to achieve 95% of the 854 000 tons forecast by the government.

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