By Patson Chilemba
Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Green Mbozi says the current price Zambians are buying the mealie meal at is the correct one, and that he expects the same high prices to be sustained, such that even a big yield from the coming rain season may not play much of a factor due to pressures from countries in the region.
And Mbozi said his Ministry issued the Zambia National Service (ZNS) with a permit to export “imported” mealie meal from South Africa, and that he is not the right person to answer over the fact that ZNS has now become a trading institution involved in imports and exports of maize to other countries.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Mbozi was
asked on the ever skyrocketing prices of mealie meal which show no signs of abetting despite claimed interventions by the UPND administration to arrest the situation, Mbozi argued that Zambians are buying the mealie meal at the correct price, as government no longer subsidises the commodity.
He said his interest in the Ministry of Agriculture is to subsidise the farmers who produce the maize and questions about subsidising consumers should be referred to the relevant ministry.
Mbozi claimed that there was pressure on Zambian maize as other regional countries main source of maize was Ukraine and Russia, which countries are at war, saying the importing countries have now found Zambia as one of the sources of the commodity, and thereby putting pressure on the local stocks.
“Because of the high demand, the prices have gone up in the region, it’s not just in Zambia. In Malawi the price is even much higher than it is in Zambia,” Mbozi said. “When we were selling the mealie meal at less that K200, it’s because government, through the Food Reserve Agency were subsidising. We were selling the maize to the millers at K200 so at that point it was easier for our mealie meal to sell below K200 or just about K200.”
He said the government is now paying for the new maize at K280 per 50kg and therefore the price cannot remain at the same price, saying “that is now the correct price because the price which was obtaining about December, January, February, March, that was a subsidised price.”
He said since the subsidy has now been removed, the consumers were now paying the correct price.
But asked if there is any consideration to reintroduce subsidies since the main concern of any administration should be its people who are having to bear the huge cost of the staple food, Mbozi said he deals with the production side in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“If you want to talk about subsidies, I think I look at subsidising the producers, the farmers. For me I will talk about subsidising the inputs for production of the food,” Mbozi said. “So if you want to talk about providing for subsidies for consumers I think you are talking to the wrong person. You can go to the Ministry that is responsible for consumer welfare. Here I am looking at the welfare of farmers.”
Asked if there is any hope that prices will come down during the course of this year or the same pressures of high prices will continue, Mbozi said, “we cannot tell. I think this pressure will be sustained for quite some time to come.”
“It is possible yes, if for instance we are blessed with good rains, and if the way we have started now, if we deliver the inputs in good time and farmers do the correct husbandry and so forth. Then if we produce in abundance, it is possible yes, when you have produced in abundance for the prices to come down because it’s the question of there being excess supply over demand,” Mbozi said. “But of course what is at stake here also is the fact that I explained earlier, it’s not just the Zambian market, we are looking at the regional market. We are looking at Tanzanian, we are neighboring countries. You have heard that there are already buyers from Tanzania who are buying maize. I am told they are in fact not buying for food but they are buying for oil, crushing maize into oil and so forth. I don’t know how true that is but also looking for markets up north, the Kenyan market and also South Sudan … Rwanda which is also looking at the same market. We also have the Malawians who did not have a good season. So we have all these countries that are looking at the Zambian maize, so even if I were to assure you that yes we will produce a lot and the prices might come down but there are other pull factors from the neighboring countries which may not make it possible for the price to significantly come down. It might come down maybe in a small way but probably not as big as to bring the mealie meal prices where they were before.”
But put to him that it was the responsibility of government to put in place effective mechanisms to insulate the domestic market from the outside shocks to protect Zambian consumers first, Mbozi claimed that the country has right now not exported any of the production from the 3.3 millions metric tonnes.
But put to him that he was the one mentioning about the pressures from the outside, Mbozi said what brought problems was a situation where the government continued selling mealie meal at less than K200 when the same commodity was going at K500 in Congo.
“So everybody saw an opportunity to make business. They were coming to Zambia to buy cheaper mealie meal to go and sell the expensive mealie meal,” Mbozi said.
He said the minister of Defence even referred to it at one point as osmosis, moving from high concentration to low concentration.
“So that is what was happening. We had a lot of maize here and so it started obviously finding its way into the Congolese and other regional markets,” Mbozi said. “So what we are trying to do now, we are trying to say let’s use the correct price so that that movement across the borders is minimised. So what will be the economic advantage for anybody come and buy a bag of mealie meal in Zambia which is already costing us K250 if in Congo it’s costing at even K280? If you adds transport costs it doesn’t make any economic sense. So that’s the rationale behind what we are doing.”
Mbozi said the conditions that were prevailing last year which he said have partly affected this year’s yield involved issues of climate change where rain started late, and at one point the rains disappeared and spoiled the crops, saying he does not not know if the same conditions will prevail in the coming rainfall season.
He said assuming they do, chances of going through what the country has experienced are quite high, but that the administration does not envisage that as it is also trying to get people with irrigation facilities to supplement if the rains were to abruptly go.
“But also we hope to make gains through the early supply of inputs so that farmers plant early. And if they plant early the production per hectare are likely to be much better than we had this year. This year our yield were about 1.72 per hectare,” Mbozi said
And Mbozi justified imports and exports of mealie meal by the Zambia National Service (ZNS).
“National Service went to South Africa to buy because we don’t have sufficient mealie meal. They went and bought, they paid for mealie meal from South Africa. That mealie meal is for them to do business. That’s the mealie meal which we are issuing them permits. First it was transit permit going towards DRC, but because of the conditions on the DRC side, initially we were allowing them just to land them on the no-mans land to sell to the Congolese,” Mbozi said. “That mealie meal is more expensive, the South mealie meal is more expensive than the Zambian mealie meal at the time we were importing so ZNS is importing and transiting with the imported South African mealie meal to sell to the Congolese market. Yes! That’s what is on the ground.”
Asked if ZNS has now become a trading organisation involved in imports and exports, Mbozi said he should not be asked that question as he does not work for the National Service.
“I am Ministry of Agriculture. If you want to ask that question you ask the Commandant of the National Service. You can’t ask me that question. You are not being fair,” said Mbozi.
