The Company Silos and Grain Terminal of Matola (STEMA) is mobilizing financial resources for the rehabilitation and replacement of its equipment and, consequently, increase the storage capacity of cereals.

The fact is that the company has equipment installed for 26 years, most of which is obsolete and therefore in need of replacement, especially elevator tabs, piping, among others. The information was recently advanced by the Chairman of the Board of Directors (PCA) of STEMA, Arlindo Chilundo, in the work visit of the Plan and Budget Committee (CPO), which aimed to assess the performance of the company's financial indicators.

According to Chilundo, in order to materialize the objective, the company will resort to commercial banking and its partners, who will be able to make the funds available and allow the work to begin.

At this moment the company has twenty-seven silos with a total capacity of 45 thousand tons. Meanwhile, Arlindo Chilundo guarantees that even at the current stage his institution still has enough space to meet the demand of the grain import volumes.

"We are prepared to do the logistics of all the grain that is imported by the mills in the southern region. We have been working with all importers, because STEMA does not directly buy the products, it only manages the bulk unloaded from the ships, which is later taken by the respective buyer," he explained to Jornal Notícias.

For his part, the president of the Planning and Budget Commission of the Assembly of the Republic, António Niquice, challenged the company to modernize itself more and more to be able to impose itself in the grain logistics market.

"The company's challenges fall within the area of modernization, to allow it to capitalize on economies of scale by leading the grain logistics market. We recommend that STEMA enhance its business plan to meet regional needs and stimulate exports," he analyzed.

He stressed that the company should also combine efforts with local producers for greater self-sufficiency and improve the balance of trade at the regional level.

"We believe that with the investments made through projects like Sustenta we can have a greater production that can be channeled to the national market and to exports, because only then can we have a more robust economy," he pointed out.

Due to its strategic location, at the Port of Matola, STEMA also serves as a support base for the transit of cereals imported by sea and transferred to the SADC countries, namely South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eswatini.