Monopolistic policies killing mealie meal sector - Fube

…says ZNS Eagle mealie meal queues are as a result of Government’s attempts to artificially control the prices of the commodity

ZAMBIANS have continued being subjected to queuing for the Zambia National Service (ZNS) Eagle mealie meal because the UPND government has decided to introduce monopolistic policies in the milling sector which has distorted not only the pricing of the mealie meal but is causing acute shortages of the commodity, Mulenga Fube has said.

Mr Fube, the Chilubi Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament says Government in its efforts to control the mealie meal prices had created an unfair market against the country’s traditional private milling companies.

Mr Fube said the artificial prices of the ZNS Eagle mealie meal was not a sustainable solution to the stabilsation of the price for the commodity because government was subsidiSing the wrong players in the industry.

He said it should have considered providing the same incentives it had offered the ZNS along with its Eagle Milling Company to private and commercial millers that had been working with the government for generations in ensuring that there was enough mealie meal and at a competitive price.

He explained that the failure of the ZNS with its Eagle Milling Company was reflecting in the never-ending mealie meal queues in many of the chain stores outlets across the country.

“We have some of our traditional private millers who have both the capacity and ability to make available mealie meal that would be fairly priced and affordable to Zambians. We can easily control the mealie meal crisis only if government could consider providing the same incentives it has awarded to ZNS and its Eagle Milling,” Mr Fube said.

“However, the problem has been that Government wants to introduce monopolistic policies in a liberalised economy, which is killing the private milling industry.

Government wants to control the prices of mealie meal without looking at the market forces and this is not sustainable.

This is what is causing the shortage of their Eagle mealie meal and subjecting Zambians to queuing for the staple food. It is unacceptable and this never be allowed in this era,” Mr Fube said.

He said the government was creating an artificial shortage of mealie meal because they had stifled the country’s private milling companies from effectively and fairly participating in the business.

Mr Fube explained that what had compounded the shortage of the ZNS mealie meal was the fact that the security outfit lacked the capacity to not only produce adequate but also limited in its distribution capacity.

“Even as we are talking about the Eagle mealie meal produced by ZNS, we have not established the source of the maize because for all we know, the UPND sold all the 1.5 million metric tonnes of the maize the PF had left in the reserves.

We have heard and seen ZNS trading in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) mealie meal imported from South Africa. It is there in our borders and we are no sure whether the same mealie meal is being offloaded in our shops,” Mr Fube said.

He said the continued queuing of mealie meal by Zambians after more than a generation was a product of the UPND’s carelessness, maladministration and poor management of the country’s affairs.