The Food Reserve Agency – FRA has confirmed that the country has enough Maize. A check by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT with the Food Reserve Agency – FRA Public Relations Coordinator John Chipandwe who exclusively revealed that the country has enough maize stocks and that the FRA has continued to offload enough Maize to Millers.
In November last year, government through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), entered into an agreement, with the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) and the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ) in an effort to fight the escalating price of the staple food in the country.
This agreement which is referred to as the tripartite agreement, with government spokesperson and information minister Dora Siliya explaining that the Agreement involved the FRA releasing about 196,000 metric tones of maize to cushion the high mealie meal prices.
Siliya at the time said that the agreement should result in wholesale price of roller meal at K125.00 and breakfast meal at K136.00 by the 38 milling companies engaged by the government. She said government is concerned with the high food prices in the country hence the reduction in the staple food.
However, this has not been the case with the situation on the ground, as the price of the staple food has now skyrocketed to between K185 to K210 per 25 kg bag in some parts of the country.
The question is, what is causing this hike in the price of the commodity, because some authorities have ruled that there is enough grain in the country but that the millers are not offloading on the market hence causing a shortage. It is also alleged that retailers are now taking advantage of the situation and are pricing the commodity at their own preferred amount.
In an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Grain Traders Association of Zambia- GTAZ Executive Director Chambuleni Simwinga explained that it has been difficult to deal with retailers who price the mealie meal according to their own interest.
“It is very difficult dealing with human beings. The issue of managing the price at consumer level is not possible unless there is a tag on the bag that’s when we can be able to contain the situation, because millers are suppling the Chain Stores who are adhering to the right price, but still retailers are buying in bulk and reselling at higher price,’’ he said.
Simwinga said the intentions of the Agreement have not yet been met because of some short comings such as the price hike in electricity tariffs, the introduction of new labour laws on the workers’ wages and the general behavior of people involved in the selling of the commodity.
He has since called on the government to quickly mitigate the crises’which has seen a 25 kg bag of mealie meal price soar in some parts of the country. effort to get a comment from Millers Association of Zambia proved futile as the phone went unanswered.
Over the weekend, Lusaka province minister Bowman Lusambo took a tour in Shoprite stores around the city of Lusaka to check on the situation and found some youths buying mealie meal in bulk.
When asked, the youths stated that they were buying for home consumption but the Shoprite Stores manager in Matero, Patricia Lungu revealed the youths were buying in bulk to resale to the Rwandese businesses who are later selling the staple food at a higher price.
Calls for the review of the tripartite agreement operations have increased as the offloaded maize at a lower price point is now not reaching the intended consumers.
