Millers urged to seek emergency meeting with govt, as fears mount over food crisis

Millers have been advised to call for an emergency meeting with the government to iron out the challenges they were facing.

Africa’s Democratic and Economic Development Organisation (ADEDO) president, Brown Kapika, fears that if the challenges the millers were facing were left unchecked, they would negatively affect the sector.

This week, Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) president, Andrew Chintala, revealed that millers were facing the real risk of shutting down their operations save for the expensive maize bought from the domestic market.

Chintala explained that millers were stuck with the same commodity as a result of the subsidised maize to the two government institutions.

Suggesting on how the matter could be resolved, Kapika in an interview with journalists on Wednesday stated that it needed urgent solutions.

“The the situation need to be addressed because when some millers shut down operations, it will be a disaster for the economy,” he said.

He noted that even when the government was concerned with high prices of mealie meal, its intervention should not lead to the shutting down of the sector.

Kapika said as it stood, the millers were playing a critical role to the economic growth of the country.

He said the government needed to hear the cries of the millers because the country might lose a sector that had been active in contributing to its economic stability.

“Yes, people have been complaining and the government has listened and it has put in place measures needed to cushion the high prices of mealie meal.

“However, this situation is not supposed to affect the local market. If the local market is distorted then the economy will be shut down completely,” Kapika said.

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