Maravi

NMC buys 65,000 tonnes of maize

NMC buys 65,000 tonnes of maize
Written by Maluba Jere
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 3:44:58 PM

NATIONAL Milling Corporation managing director Peter Cottan has said his company has so far bought only 65,000 metric tonnes of maize out of the targeted 105,000 metric tonnes this marketing season.

In an interview yesterday, Cottan said the company had bought the 65,000 metric tonnes of maize at a cost of around US $23 million (about K103 billion) and still had a shortfall of about 40,000 metric tonnes, but was optimistic about filling the gap.

He said the company would spend another US $15 million to buy the remaining 40,000 metric tonnes of maize.

Cottan said the company had written to the Ministry of Agriculture requesting to be allowed to import maize to supplement local supplies.

He said the request however did not mean that there was a crisis in the country, saying his company had enough stocks to last up to February next year.

“We are still waiting for the response from the Ministry of Agriculture following our request to import maize,” Cottan said. “This is not to say there is a crisis, we have enough maize as a country but as National Milling, we just need a bit more to top up.”

Cottan also said he was looking forward to the offloading of maize on the market by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to enable the company buy the commodity locally.

Labels: MAIZE, NATIONAL MILLING CORPORATION

posted by MrK @ 3:46 PM