By Agness Changala
The decision by the government to flood Zambia National Service (ZNS) mealie meal will create unfair competition, observes Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) president Andrew Chintala.
Last week, minister of Information and Media Cornelius Mweetwa announced that ZNS will start supplying mealie meal to Shoprite to be priced at K230 for a 25kg bag of breakfast and K180 for a 25 kg bag of roller meal.
Asked how the millers have received this decision from the government, Chintala said the message was
received with mixed feelings since the minister only talked about the price of mealie meal and not the price of maize.
He however, said the association was happy that Vice-President Mutale Nalumango clarified on Monday during question and answer time in Parliament, that ZNS is accessing maize from Food Reserve Agency (FRA), obviously which is at a lower price as compared to the maize that the millers are holding.
“So as it were, we feel that this might create in terms … some unfairness in terms of competition so we will be able to take it up. But obviously, we will issue a comprehensive statement in due course. For now, it is still fresh and still digesting and just looking at the impact this will have,” Chintala said. “Therefore, it makes it uncompetitive for us to be able to survive on the market because you have one player who got subsidised maize if you like and another player who has got expensive maize.”
He said the association will engage with the government to try and see how these interventions will be handled without stabbing and hurting the other players on the market.
“However, I think these are the issues that we will need to engage with the government to try and see how these interventions could be enhanced or could be handled without stabbing and hurting the other players on the market. It’s very clear that the government had indicated and instructed us that, look, millers should buy maize and ensure that they stock up for their production,” Chintala said. “And indeed a few of my members did not live up to that but quite a number of them invested in terms of buying maize at very high prices. So this development obviously needs to be looked at, obviously engage the authorities that be, to try and strike a balance.”
Chintala also said the move was good, but the government needed to look at what was causing the imbalance in the market.
“It’s a good move. Because we are concerned and we want to look after our people but you need to look at what is causing the imbalance in the market which is just one thing, the high maize prices,” Chintala said
He added that such decisions also create distortions in the market.
“But of course notwithstanding the reasons I have given, it definitely creates distortions whenever you make such moves. It creates some distortions in the market, it’s something we are looking at and obviously we will be able to raise it with appropriate authorities at an appropriate engagement or fora,” he said.
Chintala further assured that something will be done about it since the association and government are still having meetings which are not yet concluded.
“Our discussions haven’t really ended because we are looking at a more sustainable approach towards addressing the issue of stabilising prices of the commodity or I wouldn’t want to get into the details of that because as far as I am concerned, we are still on the table. We have got enough room to be able to discuss and extend our concerns to the authorities on this particular matter as we continue to look at other avenues,” said Chintala.
He said in a free market economy prices are not dictated but are determined by the market forces.
