The United Party for National Development (UPND) says the projected record bumper harvest should benefit the public “with record reduction” in mealie meal prices.
Speaking in an interview UPND Deputy Secretary General Kuchunga Simusamba said government should not only announce record high harvest projections but must go further and tell the people how they will benefit from the projected bumper harvest.
Mr Simusamba notes that citizens are more interested in being told that mealie meal prices will be reduced since the country has produced record high maize grain.
“It is good that government is saying that the country will have a bumper harvest now government should go further and tell the nation that there will record reductions on the commodity which is the country’s staple food,” Mr. Simusamba said.
He observes that in the past two years people have been told that the country has produced enough maize but that has not corresponded with the prices of mealie meal which has continued to go up reaching record highs of over K72.00 per 25Kgs of breakfast and in some places even higher.
He also called on government to ensure that it puts in measures to prevent the wastege of grain through lack of storage facilities and bad crop marketing strategies.
He said the country can not afford to continue recording bumper harvests then letting the produce go to waste because there are no storage facilities or that some farmers could not maximize their profits because they could not be reached by government because of bad roads and other social facilities such as lack of FRA deports.
The Ministry of Agriculture has projected a 23 percent increment in this year’s maize harvest which will see the country produce over 3million metric tones of the commodity.
Yes sure ubunga price should come down if for sure there is bumper harvest. My family back in zambia are complaining too much on this ubunga high price.if by August the prices don’t come down to K 30 then PF as usual have been lying
But Zambian satanomics works in reverse, a bumper harvest will result in a bumper increase in price of mealie-meal.
In sensible economies you will be advocating for subsidized milling plants to be put up in localities where the cost of transport can be removed from the pricing regimen. Alas, we still think that hauling the corn into Lusaka and then redistributing it back as milled flour will solve anything. Where are the economists and planners to sort this out please? This broken record of subsidy must be thrown away now.
By the way, with our help, my mother stores a good portion of her maize and is able to take it to the miller for a good supply of her maize meal for the year. So for us, we sell the surplus, and keep what we need to eat.