The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and Public Sector Reforms has announced that the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has posted a net loss-after-tax of K3.7 billion in the first six months of the 2020/21 fiscal year.

An Annual Economic Report by the Ministry, attributes the loss to the lack of commodities in stock for most parts of the period, while another factor is that funding for commodity purchases was not done in due time. “… As such, Admarc was exposed to consecutive months of low sales and low purchases on one side and high overhead costs on the other,” the report reads.

Recently the Chairperson for the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee Sameer Suleiman asked President Lazarus Chakwera to intervene in the affairs of Admarc to save the grain trader from extinction.