THE Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has closed this year's crop marketing season, describing the exercise as successful.

FRA spokesperson, Mwamba Siame said in an interview yesterday the agency stopped buying maize from farmers last Saturday.

She said the agency could not immediately release the figures on how much it had bought because it was still collecting data from remote parts of the country before reconciling.

She said there were farmers who delivered their produce on the closing day and that would require some time for them to be captured in the system.

Ms Siame said the exercise was a success and there was an overwhelming response from farmers who rushed to sell their produce.

She said the agency had been paying farmers who sold their maize as agreed and that there were no complaints.

She assured the farmers who delivered their produce during the last two-week extension that they would be paid their money within the next 10 days as arranged.