Grain Traders Association of Zambia – GTAZ, a signatory to the tripartite agreement that involves the Food Reserve Agency – FRA and Miller Association of Zambia – MAZ has revealed that all millers party to the tripartite agreement will and should have a price tag of between K130 and K140 on the bag of mealie meal as retail price for a 25 kg.
GTAZ confirmed that an emergency meeting had been held following the reports of the skyrocketing price of the staple food, mealie meal in which some traders took advantage of the situation to repeat buy from the commodity and resell it at hiked prices.
In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, GTAZ Executive Director Chambuleni Simwinga stated that the price should now be about K140 per 25 kg of breakfast Millie meal which had been re-affirmed after the meeting and that the benefiting millers will now be tagging a price tag on the bags to prevent the bulk buying and reselling practices which had been taken advantage of to create an artificial shortage of lower priced mealie meal.
When asked by ZBT to name the top five millers which members of the public can watch out for to secure the supply and pricing as per tripartite agreement, Simwinga named the top five millers who are party to the agreement who buy the largest quantity of subsidized maize as; Antelope Milling, FVG Milling, National Milling, Simba Milling and African Milling companies among others.
Simwinga said all the 38 millers who are party to the tripartite agreement should now put a price tag on the bags of mealie meal to avoid the retailers exploiting the program by pricing in their own interest. He said that this practice is workable and needs the supply chain to have specific onward agreements with retailers to ensure that agreed margins and final retail prices are maintain.
He confirmed that this agreement was arrived at, after the meeting held recently with the stakeholders. ‘‘How the tripartite agreement is working is that millers are getting maize from maize traders and then they show proof of purchase to FRA, then FRA is providing 37% of that quantity bought as subsidy, which should cushion the and average down the cost of maize that miller buy,’’ said Simwinga.
He further told ZBT that the price tag on the bags of mealie meal coupled with a monitoring system is only way the tripartite agreement will benefit the consumers who are the intended targets for the agreement. He called on all the millers to adhere to the directive and make sure that all the bags of mealie meal offloaded by all the 38 millers in Chain Stores and other distribution points across the country are priced appropriately with the price tag printed right from the factory.
A quick check in some Chain Stores by ZBT in Lusaka found some millers such as African Milling brand adhering to the contracted price as per tripartite agreement and consumers are purchasing the commodity at about K135 per 25kg bag of breakfast mealie meal and K125 for roller mealie meal respectively
