By NATION REPORTER
THE Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) has cautioned milers who receive Food Reserve Agency Programme (FRA) subsided maize against selling mealie meal at exorbitant prices.
MAZ president, Andrew Chintala, said millers should stick to the agreed price of the commodity and refrain from exploiting consumers.
[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”4,5,6″ ihc_mb_template=”2″ ]
In an interview, Mr Chintala said millers who buy maize from the FRA are in agreement with the government to sell mealie meal at a stipulated price of K165 for a 25kg per bag in Lusaka and K175 on the Copperbelt respectively.
Mr Chintala said the millers and government have started a programme called the price and supply stabilisation programme meant to stabilise the price and supply of the commodity on the domestic market.
He stated that the stipulated prices are specifically for millers on the government programme under FRA.
“The monitoring part of the programme has really helped us a lot to ensure that those on the programme do not exploit consumers by coming up with their own prices. There is a team of combined officers and government officials that are always moving around to ensure that we keep the agreement we have with the government,” he said.
He noted that the programme is critical considering the recent events in the past few weeks as regards to mealie meal in the country.
Mr Chintala however, said the mealie meal situation in the country has stabilised as noticed from a number of depots visited in towns which recorded shortages in the past few weeks, are now stocked up.
He appealed to millers to buy enough maize stocks to support production.
In recent weeks, some parts of the country have been experiencing shortages of mealie meal.
[/ihc-hide-content]
