Copperbelt Minister, Mwansa Mbulakulima, says millers withholding maize stocks are responsible for the artificial shortage of mealie meal in some districts in the province.
And Mr Mbulakulima said Chambeshi storage shed on the Copperbelt has adequate stocks of maize and people should not panic.
The minister was responding to a press query on the shortage of breakfast mealie meal in Mufulira district.
Mr Mbulakulima said some millers have withheld their maize stocks with the view to create an artificial shortage so that they force the price of the mealie meal on the market to rise.
The minister added that government is aware of some people who want to create this situation and take advantage to alarm the people that there is a shortage of maize when it is not true.
He noted that millers blamed the power outages for not producing enough mealie meal but the problem was addressed by government and now they want to withhold the maize.
Mr Mbulakulima said as a province all measures have been put in place to ensure that the commodity is available in all the districts and the issue of mealie meal running out should not arise.
Mufulira district has had no breakfast mealie meal since last week. Some retail outlets are claiming that the suppliers have run out of maize.
Fine them millions!
Why does MMD keep defending loadshedding by attributing mealie meal shortages to anything else apart from inconsistent power supply?