Check escalating mealie meail prices

Dear Editor,

I WANT to comment on President Edgar Lungu’s sentiments that Government will take radical decisions to ensure mealie meal prices are reduced by dealing with millers getting subsidised maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

I think this decision is long overdue. It should have been done from the beginning. The millers who have signed up for this should not betray Government by charging exorbitant prices for their mealie meal.

Mealie meal is an emotive issue in Zambia because it is our staple food.

ew families can claim not to be eating nshima. For rural-based dwellers, nshima is the number one food in a home.

The absence of nshima in a home could have very serious consequences. That is why everyone is concerned with the escalating mealie meal prices.

In some areas, a 25kg bag of mealie meal is costing K135 and yet the government had assured that those getting subsidised maize should sell their mealie meal at K85 for a 25kg bag.

In some areas, a 25kg bag of mealie meal is costing K135 and yet the government had assured that those getting subsidised maize should sell their mealie meal at K85 for a 25kg bag. This is the price that everyone is aware of.

However, what is obtaining in the shops is different and that is why it is important to have an intervention now than later. Let millers benefitting from subsidised maize pass on the benefit to the intended beneficiaries, the consumers.

Otherwise, I would suggest that solar millers get the subsidised maize so that ordinary people could benefit.

That way, the people who really need cheap mealie meal will benefit directly other than just enriching some millers.

I hope that the President’s intention will be actualised by the technocrats in the Ministry of Agriculture. It should not just end with the promise from the President. I do not expect the President to come back to inspect if millers are following the government directives or not. That is the job for the ministry.