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The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has offloaded cheap maize to seventeen millers across Zambia in an effort to curtail the prevailing high cost of mealie meal.
This follows a directive from government which has also increased surveillance and security measures along major trade routes and border areas to curtail the unauthorised cross boarder traders of maize and mealie meal.
The current prices of breakfast mealie meal are ranging between K162 to as high as K250 in border areas.
According to Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri, FRA had been directed to release maize to selected millers with adequate capacity to process and supply the required quantities of mealie meal to stabilise prices.
“So far, the food reserve agency has released maize to 17 millers across the country. We have also brought the Zambia National Service milling plants to enhance the millers’ capacity,” Phiri told the press in Lusaka on Wednesday.
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FRA, he said, had also intensified community sales of maize grain to ensure that vulnerable households and communities had access to affordable maize for domestic consumption.
Phiri encouraged more communities and households to engage the office of the district agricultural coordinator on how to access support through the programme.
He further said in collaboration with the defence and security wings, his Ministry had increased surveillance and security measures along major trade routes and border areas to curtail the unauthorised cross boarder traders of maize and mealie meal.
“The Ministry is actively monitoring the export of maize and mealie meal in order to ensure that all exporters are strictly adhering to the quantities approved in the issued permits.
“In line with the provisions of the FRA Act of 2020, the Ministry and other relevant stakeholders will conduct weekly verification of stocks held by milling companies and retail outlets,” Phiri said.
He attributed the increase of the prices to mainly factors such as load shedding which had affected the processing capacity of millers; and the seasonal variations in the supply of maize on the local market.
“We are concerned by the rise in the price of mealie meal on the local market,” Phiri said.
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