THE Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange Private Limited (ZMX) has added wheat on its trading platform to facilitate safe, secure, and convenient commodity trading and financing.
This comes at a time when the country is expecting a bumper wheat harvest in excess of 380 000 tonnes.
In a statement issued yesterday, ZMX said all was set for the 2022 wheat to trade on their Electronic Warehouse Receipt System and a Commodities Trade Platform.
Said ZMX: “Following the joint announcement by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development on the modalities for the 2022 wheat trading, the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) has announced that it is now issuing warehouse receipts. ZMX would like therefore to advise farmers, contractors, wheat buyers, wheat processors and other wheat value chain stakeholders of wheat trading structures vis-à-vis Warehouse Receipts and Trading.”
ZMX also explained that all self-financed farmers and contractors who delivered wheat to designated warehouses shall be issued with a warehouse receipt in terms of the Warehouse Receipt Act [Chapter 18:25].
The following are the approved warehouses that will issue warehouse receipts in terms of the said Act: GMB Depots – Aspindale, Banket, Bulawayo, Concession, Chinhoyi, Chegutu, Gweru, Lion’s Den, Magunje, Masvingo, Murehwa and Norton; Bak Storage and S and P Logistics in Harare.
The warehouse receipts shall be issued in favour of the farmer or contractor.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) secretary general Mr Paul Zakariya has also commented on the development saying ZMX’s decision had come at an opportune time after the country had lost a lot of opportunities in price discovery and financing on the basis of a warehouse receipt.
“The issuance of a warehouse receipt can open access to financing, as it is security enough. It has the advantage that the farmer does other things knowing the money is stored. In the future the platform can be used to trade commodities in advance, the futures market.
“Farmers will benefit in that they will be liquid, having access to working capital. It has the added benefit of making use of market forces of demand and supply in price discovery. In the past we used to have ZIMACE that worked well in price discovery. Many more commodities need to be added on this trade platform for the benefit of farmers,” said Mr Zakariya.
However, for Government guaranteed schemes deliveries and issuance of warehouse receipts will only be done through GMB depots.
To facilitate trading each farmer or contractor will be required to open a commodity trading account with ZMX using the *727# USSD short code across all mobile networks or go to www.zmx.co.zw, or the ZMX Mobile App.
Farmers or contractors shall deliver the wheat to GMB or any of the designated warehouses where the commodity shall be weighed, graded and a warehouse receipt issued in favour of the farmer or contractor.
Trading of wheat shall be in full compliance with statutory instrument (S.I.) 188 of 2021, which specifies the terms and conditions for the trading of wheat. According to the above-mentioned ministerial statement, self-financed farmers and contractors may trade wheat at market prices and ZMX has the necessary infrastructure to support these trades.
Those eligible to trade their wheat need to first obtain the necessary grain movement permits from GMB if they wish to take the wheat to warehouses other than GMB depots, open ZMX accounts and receive warehouse receipts as above.
Holders of warehouse receipts will be able to deposit the warehouse receipts with any of the participating Custodian Banks (CBZ and CABS) who will facilitate trading on the ZMX exchange.
For any additional information or assistance kindly get in touch with ZMX staff on: +263 242 754 842 or 0774 043 942 or visit www.zmx.co.zw
