Government, in partnership with several private sector players, have launched the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange, which will provide convenience and efficiency in the marketing of agricultural commodities.
The new agriculture commodities exchange will also ensure enhanced profitability, access to markets, finance and credit for the country’s farmers.
Officiating at the launch this morning, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said the Mercantile Exchange is in line with ongoing efforts to boost the performance of the agricultural sector.
“Government remains committed to capacitate our agriculture sector and to restore the country’s breadbasket status, as enunciated through the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (2021 – 2025), and the draft National Agriculture Policy Framework (NAPF) (2020 – 2030).
“The Commodities Exchange initiative is a partnership between the Government and the private sector. The private sector participants include: Financial Securities Exchange (Private) Limited (FINSEC), a licensed securities exchange; TSL Limited, a publicly traded agro-industrial business and CBZ Holdings, a publicly traded financial services business,” said Professor Ncube.
The Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange operates on a locally developed Warehouse Receipt System.
“The end-to-end technology that anchors the Warehouse Receipt System, as well as the Commodities Exchange trading, settlement and reporting platform is a local initiative,” he added.
“The Warehouse Receipt System is key in addressing one of the challenges farmers face, which is that of poor storage facilities resulting in post-harvest losses. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates, post-harvest losses encountered by small-scale farmers can be as high as 25 percent.
“The innovation whose operationalisation we are witnessing today will greatly assist in reducing these post-harvest losses thereby giving our small-scale farmers more value for their efforts.”
