The Mozambican government has given the Mozambique Cereals Institute (ICM) the mandate to manage cereal imports, specifically rice and wheat, citing the need to eliminate the “illegal export of foreign currency through over-invoicing” of these products. The measure is set out in Ministerial Decree No. 132/2025 from the Ministry of Economy, dated 31 December, which is scheduled to come into effect between February and May this year, according to documents obtained by Lusa on Monday.
In the decree, signed by Economy Minister Basílio Muhate, the government justifies the move with the “need to create a transparent mechanism for the import of rice and wheat, and to consequently eliminate the illegal export of foreign currency through over-invoicing and duplication of invoices, thus ensuring the stability of domestic prices, particularly for cereals, and securing national supply, encouraging local production and strengthening the authority of the State.” The ICM is appointed “as a State agent with a mandate to conduct the cereal import process, specifically rice and wheat” for Mozambique, “without prejudice to the intervention, under the law, of its partners and other economic agents in the execution of the imports.” The decree specifies that “it is the ICM’s responsibility to make rice and wheat available on a paid basis to economic agents for sale on the domestic market,” with the decree applying to rice imports from 1 February and wheat from 1 May 2026. In practice, until May, all economic agents will be required to purchase these cereals through the ICM. “The mechanism and import process, as well as the terms and operational procedures for its execution, will be approved by the minister overseeing the area of Foreign Trade, ensuring compliance with economic policy and the interests of the State,” the decree adds.
Rice and wheat had already been included in December on a list of 16 products for which the government imposed temporary import quantity limits, alongside meat and edible offal from poultry, sugar, refined palm oil, bottled water and carbonated beverages, pasta, salt and sodium chloride, Portland cement, tiles, maize flour, beer, wooden and metal furniture, paper and cardboard products, non-alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, and maize grain. Mozambique imported US$63.1 million in rice in the first three months of 2025, equivalent to almost 15% of the country’s consumer goods purchased from abroad in that period, according to official data reported by Lusa in August. According to a recent statistical report from the Bank of Mozambique, between January and March the country imported US$63.1 million in rice, following a record US$441 million for the full year of 2024 — an increase of 38.8% compared with 2023, when imports amounted to US$317.7 million.
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