Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) President, Andrew Chintala, during an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT has confirmed that “Millers are ready and have started buying maize”.
Chintala stated that “we can only appeal to the small scale farmers to encourage them to take advantage of the market which the millers are offering as long as they reach the 12.5% moisture content in their grain, they are more than welcome to approach any miller because we have already started buying the grain and they are assured to get a fair price as we are offering quite competitive prices.”
On 27 May,2020. Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo held a media briefing on the Crop Forecast Survey and Food Security Status for 2020/2021 Marketing Season where he announced that Zambia is expected to harvest 3.4 million tonnes of maize this year. This price is thought of more as a floor price but delays by FRA to pay cash on delivery lowers the actual market price on the ground.
MAZ however stated that it will respect the principles of free market economy, which is supply and demand to come at play because only that will determine the actual value of the commodity and at what price it will be trading at on the open market.
Chintala added that , the association doesn’t encourage anyone to make any interventions that will influence the market as it starts, because any interventions that can be made at any level may bring about distortion in the market.
Chintala further said in terms of price stability, looking at the stock figures that the minister announced, it is clear that, millers are assured of the stable supply of the commodity and if there’s price stability in the input supply of the maize to millers they will definitely be stability in the output price of mealie meal.
And prices will remain relatively stable due to the fact that the supply will meet the demand. “Prediction is that the prices will remain stable because of the high production yields that have been recorded.” He added.
In relation to ensuring that smuggling of the commodity is taken care of, MAZ needs to formalize trade, to monitor everything that goes out of the country and be able to account for it.
In conclusion Chintala said, “It is imperative that government quickly engages the appropriate players as Minister of Agriculture stated, to meet to look at how we can formalize the trade between Zambia and neighboring countries where we could have the market for the surplus crop because that’s the only way to take care of smuggling. If boarders are kept closed for trade, people will look for alternative ways to export the surplus of the commodity.”
Analyst say the price of mealie meal has had some stability mainly due to the enforcing of the tripartite agreement but it remains to be seen if a revised one will be signed off to ensure that prices are stabilized.
