26 December 2008
THE Government expects millers to emulate Chimanga Changa Milling Company which reduced mealie meal prices even before the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) lowered the price of maize.
Agriculture and Co-operatives Minister, Brian Chituwo, said the Government expected the millers to respond to the FRA decision to reduce the prices of maize to benefit consumers.
Dr Chituwo said in an interview in Lusaka that the reduction in the price of maize was part of the Government's commitment to ensure that mealie meal was made affordable and the Government was waiting to the see the benefits trickle down to the people.
He said millers complained that they decided to increase the prices of mealie because of the costly maize but since the FRA has now reduced maize prices, it was fair that the millers responded to the reduction.
"There is no justification for millers to continue selling the commodity at exorbitant prices and we hope the millers will realise the importance of making the commodity affordable.
"Since the millers will now be accessing the maize from FRA, there is no reason why they should not respond by reducing the prices of mealie meal as well since their concern was the cost of maize," he said.
The minister further said that the Government, through the vice-president's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), had also intensified distribution of relief food to areas which have been hit by hunger.
He said as part of the long-term solution, the Government was putting in place measures aimed at working with farmers to improve and increase production.
The Government recently directed the FRA to offload 100,000 tonnes of maize on the market to reduce and stabilise mealie meal prices.
Chimanga Changa Milling Company, which on Monday announced a reduction in the price of mealie meal, on Wednesday offloaded cheap mealie meal from its Ndola plant.
Chimanga Changa spokesman, Auswell Nyoni, said all the stocks released on the market were bought and the company had boosted production to ensure that it satisfied demand when sales resume this morning.
Chimanga Changa has pegged its breakfast at K45,000 from K55,000 and roller meal from K45,000 to K35,000 regardless of distance from the Ndola plant for all Copperbelt towns.
In Kabwe, FVG Milling Limited general manager, Hastings Mwase, said his company would consider reducing mealie meal prices once it accessed the cheap maize from the FRA.
Mr Mwase said in an interview in Kabwe yesterday that currently, the milling company had maize stocks to last two months and once exhausted, then it would buy the cheap maize from the FRA.
Currently, the milling company is selling a 25 kilogramme bag of breakfast mealie meal at 54,000 and that of roller meal at K44,000.
Mr Mwase welcomed the move by the FRA to reduce its price of maize from K63,000 to K55,000, saying the initiative would cushion the prices of the staple food.
APG Milling chairman, George Konidaris, said in a separate interview in Lusaka that the reduction in the price of maize was welcome but urged the FRA to increase the monthly stocks it was offloading on the market.
Mr Konidaris said the 20,000 tonnes that the FRA was releasing every month was not enough and needed to be increased to at least 50,000 tonnes for it to go round the millers and result in a mealie meal price reduction.
He said as long as maize from the FRA was available, the price would definitely go down.
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