Mealie meal prices go up

MEALIE meal prices have increased due to the rise in the price of maize on the open market, says Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) president Andrew Chintala.

Mr Chintala said maize on the open market was currently fetching between K1, 100 and K1, 500 per metric tonne.

He said the other factor which could have led to the increase in the price of mealie meal was the cost of transport.

A check by the Daily Nation yesterday in some retail stores found that a 25 kilogram bag of breakfast mealie meal which was last month fetching K74 was now being sold at K88.

And Government has lifted the ban on exports of mealie meal.

Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo said in a statement yesterday that millers who had accessed Government subsidized maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) would not be allowed to get export permits for mealie meal.

Mr Katambo said the decision was arrived at in close consultation with key stakeholders that included the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ, MAZ, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), and Zambia Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE) and the FRA.

He said Zambia currently had in excess of 700,000 metric tonnes of maize grain stocks and that Government was convinced that the nation was food secure.

“From the consultation that Government has been having with stakeholders in the agriculture industry, it has become very clear that as a country, we need to develop a predictable and transparent agricultural commodity marketing system,” Mr Katambo said.

The minister said State security agencies would also remain vigilant in strategic cross-border points to prevent illegal exports of the commodity. Mr Katambo said the move would help Government manage the nation’s food balance sheet and make maize an export crop.

Meanwhile, the price of bread has gone up in the country following a shortage of wheat in the region.

National Union for small scale farmers (NUSF) director Frank Kayula said the region was experiencing a shortage of wheat which was likely to push the price of bread high.

And a survey conducted by the Daily Nation in selected supermarkets yesterday found that bread prices had gone up from K6.50 to K8.50 and K5.99 to K7.99 respectively.

Mr Chintala attributed the rise in bread price to increased price of wheat on the market.

He said with the recent hiking of wheat prices on the market might have caused bakers to push up the prices of their finished products so as to break even in terms of business.