President Michael Sata’s government has finally given in to high mealie meal prices after earlier attempts to control millers with a flat rate has backfired with countrywide shortages of the commodity.
President Sata had summoned millers to stop selling meal meal at more than Kr 50 but this has caused a lot of strain in the market with the available commodity fetching twice as much.
Mealie meal, a powder made out if corn, is Zambia’s staple food and has in the past led to riots when not sufficiently supplied.
Agriculture minister Bob Sichinga yesterday said the millers would now sell a 25 kilogramme bag of mealie meal at KR55 while the same quantity of roller meal would cost between KR35 and KR37. This, however, will not be the official price for which the consumer will purchase the commodity.
“We discussed with the millers on Saturday the 23rd [of March] and agreed with them. We said suppose we were able to make adjustments for the pricing so that you can be able to cover the transportation and they said yes in order for us to do that if you allowed us K55 000 (KR55) per bag we would be willing to transport it to every place. Otherwise the buyers must come and buy and collect themselves,” he said.
“The millers have been authorized to proceed with the deliveries at a price of K55,000 (KR55) indicative and we do expect that as maize becomes more readily available these prices may drop.”
And Millers Association of Zambia president Allan Sakala said it was a positive move, adding that the the country could have avoided the mealie meal shortages if the government had listened to the millers during the first negotiations.
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