Food reserve agency sets maize purchasing price at K280 per 50kg bag, K100 higher than 2022 ceiling

The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has pegged its maize purchasing price for the 2023 grain marketing season at K280 for a 50kilogrammes bag of white maize.

FRA Board Chairperson, Kelvin Hambwezya, revealed this during a media briefing held in Lusaka on Wednesday.

Hambwezya said this translates into a K100 increment from last year’s K180 for the commodity, while the price of Paddy Rice has been pegged at K200 for a 40kilogrammes bag from the previous K160 respectively.

He said the agency currently has 248,77.35 metric tonnes of maize in the National Strategic Food Reserves and expects to buy the remaining amount on the market in order to meet the minimum statutory strategic grain reserve threshold of 500,000 metric tonnes.

“Millers are therefore encouraged to buy sufficient stocks of their own from farmers to sustain their milling business as the agency may not offload Maize from the strategic reserves which ideally are meant for future sales programmes, FRA will only work with Millers that make verifiable effort to buy their own stocks,” Hambwezya said.

He said during this year’s crop marketing season, the agency will operate a total of 1,200 Satellite Depots to provide market access to small scale farmers.

“This employment opportunity will result in the engagement of 4,800 seasonal buyers and security guards drawn from the local communities who are mainly youths and women and over 10,000jobs for various activities associated to the agency’s area of operation,” Hambwezya said.

He further underscored that the Agency has resolved to only purchase 2 commodities for the 2023 marketing season because it has an excess of Soya Beans currently sitting at 100,000 metric tonnes.

Hambwezya has since called on private sector players to purchase the Soya Beans as the agency has been struggling with the market.

WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.