ZMX signs MoU for regional collaboration

THE Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) has signed agreements to collaborate with three other agricultural commodity exchanges in the region.

Last week, ZMX signed a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for agricultural commodity exchange collaboration with Malawi’s Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ACE), Zambian Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE) and Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX).

All the four exchanges are members of the African Continental Free Trade Association-Association of Commodity Exchange (A-ACX).

ZMX chief executive officer (CEO) Mr Collen Tapfumaneyi said collaboration between the regional agricultural commodity exchanges would open up new markets for farmers.

“Our countries are always trading one way or the other, but it is done in an unstructured manner. Currently, a local farmer has to board a bus to go to Tanzania, for example, if they want to sell their products.

“As commodity exchanges, we are positioning ourselves as market windows. If you want to look into what is available in Zimbabwe, you can look into it via ZMX, and if you want to look at what is available in Malawi, look through ACE, etcetera.

“If the four windows are interconnected, it means that when we have surplus wheat in Zimbabwe, we can broadcast it to three countries; and when there is surplus soya beans in Malawi, everyone can see that we can now start trading.

“It tells our farmers what is in demand, not just in Zimbabwe, but in the whole region, so they can also plan.”

An agricultural commodity exchange is a centralised location or system where buyers and sellers of agricultural products come together to trade.

Common agricultural commodities traded on the exchanges include grains (wheat, corn and soya beans), livestock, and other products like sugar, coffee and cotton, just to mention a few.

The scope of collaboration between ZMX, ACE, ZAMACE and TMX includes, trading and settlement integration; warehouse receipt system integration; risk management and liability framework, and a commercial framework.-herald