Although the official inauguration only took place now, DECA began to purchase and process maize in 2006. It participates directly in marketing campaigns, encouraging and supporting local maize production.
The establishment of this company involved an investment of 11 million US dollars in 2005/06. In the 2006 marketing campaign, DECA spent 1.5 million dollars in purchasing maize from peasant farmers in Manica, Sofala and Zambezia provinces. For 2007, it has budgeted four million dollars for maize purchases.
In addition, DECA has its own 400 hectare farm in Morrumbala district, Zambezia province, where it grows maize.
"This is a way of stimulating peasant production", said Guebuza. "We're talking about fighting poverty, and this is one of the ways of fighting it".
He pledged that the government will do all in its power to encourage initiatives of this sort.
DECA has the installed capacity to produce 120 tonnes of maize flour and 30 tonnes of bran per day. It possesses ten silos, which can each hold 1,000 tonnes.
In Manica alone the company possess 20 maize purchasing posts. It owns a fleet of 36 trucks, imported from Britain, which collect maize from the peasant farmers.
DECA is part of the London-based Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC), which, as its name suggests, is essentially a mining company. Apart from Mozambique, CAMEC also has operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Angola and Mali.
DECA's general director, Euan Kay, told Guebuza "we're encouraging peasants not to produce merely for their own subsistence, but also to gain an income from their production".
SOURCE: AIM
