By Desire Tshuma
Harare – The Indigenous Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe has come out in full support of Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025, saying the law is critical to protecting local farmers, reducing import dependency, and building national food sovereignty.
In a statement issued on 18 June 2026, IGMAZ Chairman Tinashe Prosper Chiname accused some players in the grain milling industry of trying to undermine Government’s import substitution agenda through “self-serving and unjustifiable opposition” to the Statutory Instrument.
SI 87 of 2025 requires processors to source at least 40 percent of their grain and oilseed needs locally by 1 April 2026, rising to 100 percent by 2028. Processors must also pay the difference between import and local prices into the Agricultural Revolving Fund to support farmer development and agricultural investment.
IGMAZ said the law protects local farmers by forcing food processors to buy most raw ingredients locally and also curbs speculative activity in the sector. Chiname pointed to early proceeds from the levy being channelled into irrigation and agricultural infrastructure as proof that the policy is about building long-term productive capacity.
Chiname questioned the logic of continued raw grain imports: “Why should Zimbabwe continue importing raw grain for expensive local processing when finished products such as mealie meal can equally be imported at much lesser amounts? The reality is that these endless grain imports mainly benefit traders and foreign producers while weakening local agriculture and domestic industrial growth.”
He warned that Zimbabwe cannot sustain the current level of imports, noting that Government has indicated the country loses more than US$4 billion annually through unnecessary imports.
IGMAZ said its member mills process over 900,000 metric tonnes of maize and 300,000 metric tonnes of traditional grains like sorghum and millet produced by rural households each year. Chiname argued that flooding the market with cheap imports “directly attacks the foundations of the national vision of empowering indigenous Zimbabweans to produce, industrialize and control national value chains.”
Linking the policy to NDS1, NDS2 and Vision 2030, Chiname called on Government to remain firm in defending local production. “Zimbabwe must never become a supermarket economy that survives entirely on imported goods while local farmers, industries and communities collapse,” he said.
IGMAZ also urged farmers, indigenous millers and patriotic Zimbabweans to reject attempts to weaken domestic production and turn the country into a dumping ground for foreign goods. The association said it remains committed to working with Government and stakeholders to build a grain milling industry that is innovative, transparent, competitive and capable of contributing to national development.