By Chinoyi Chipulu
Chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the government has decided to increase the price of maize marginally from K330 to K340 as people need to access mealie-meal.
And Mweetwa who is also Information and Media minister has urged farmers to prioritise selling maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) so that in the event of a drought, the country will have sufficient maize stocks.
Mweetwa said yesterday on a live video on the Ministry of Information and Media Facebook page that the government was cognizant and aware that quite a good number of people found it extremely difficult to buy the commodity after the country faced a drought.
Mweetwa said as the country moved from the drought situation, the government deemed it fit to only increase maize prices marginally.
“We would like our people specifically the people of Zambia to know that the government has decided to increase maize price marginally from K330 to K340 for a strategic and specific reason of cushioning the citizens around the country, especially those who are not involved in maize production, “he said.
He said that the rationale was that the country was just moving out of a very debilitating and the worst drought in living memory.
“The government deemed it fit to only increase maize prices marginally so that the increase in maize price may not trigger an instantaneous increase in mealie meal prices that will eat away the benefits of a lowering cost of living that is presently being registered as a result of the lowering cost of fuel and increased access to energy, electricity and also the Kwacha which is gaining buoyance towards equilibrium. Additional to that, we have seen inflation in May move to 155.3 to 14.1 in June,” he said.
He said all these factors put together had culminated into a lowering cost of living and lowering prices of goods and services.
“Therefore at this particular moment, measures that the government have put in place are cognizant of the fact that our people need to access mealie meal and maize which is the staple food, “he said.
He said the government was sure that with the anticipated good rain season, it was expected that the government would increase the maize price as national food security in the country.
And Mweetwa said the government was concerned that a number of the farmers had continued to sell maize to private grain buyers even before satisfying the FRA requirements.
“They should sell maize to FRA, a national strategic food reserve agency for the country so that in an event the country had a non-likely situation of the rain season, which is not favorable, we are assured as a nation that we have sufficient maize stocks through FRA, in the like manner that when we faced this drought season last year, because FRA had quiet sufficient stocks of maize the government did not struggle to feed its people,” said Mweetwa.
