THE Government has through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has embarked on a special exercise called Operation Flood the Market under which it will offload 112,860 tonnes of maize to millers across the country.
Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) president Allan Sakala is optimistic the move would help stabilise the prices of mealie meal in the country.
According to a press statement by the FRA executive director Chola Kafwabulula, the offloading of maize on the market is in line with the agency’s mandate to ensure that grains are released from the strategic food reserve to help stablise the prices of the staple food.
Mealie meal prices have increased from the retail price of about K49, 000 per 25 kilogramme bag to as high as K75,000 in some parts of the country.
Mr Kafwabulula said Operation Flood the Market operations was being managed by nine-member taskforce headed by him.
Operation Flood the Market would run smoothly by reducing on paper work previously associated with maize allocations to millers with the view to immediately addressing mealie meal prices in the country.
Mr Kafwabulula said the task force was set to facilitate the expeditious processing and allocation of applications received from millers under specified terms of reference.
The terms of reference are allocating maize to millers based on applications received; processing the required documentation within 24 hours once payment is effected.
Other terms are ensuring that loading at FRA depots is quick to facilitate a steady supply of maize grain from FRA depots to the milling plants.
A total of 36 milling companies have been earmarked in different parts of the country.
They are National Milling Company, Chimanga Changa, Tamba Milling, Solwezi Milling, Shabco Million, FGV, Kwacha, Mpongwe, Mutupa Processing Company, First Choice Milling, White Gold Milling, Star Milling A.L Milling, Simba Milling, Mumbwa Milling Corporation, MF Milling Enterprises, Glance Milling and Jambara Merchants.
Others are: Olimpic, Antelope, HM Milling, Jamas, Kasama, Chimsoro, Mpongwe,, Cereal, Chat, GBM, Mushe, Pembe Flour Mills, Kasama Bakery, Choma, APG, Aupie, Superior and Dariyaye.
And the government has allowed the FRA to sell maize to the members of the general public as a way of helping to curb the current rising prices of the mealie meal prices.
Agriculture minister Emmanuel Chenda said under Operation Flood the Market, the agency would be selling the staple grain to individuals which would be taken for grinding as a way of improving on the food security at household level.
ok
aka nyamu nyamu, 125kg pa mutwe.
Will just break ribs or internal organs. thats not safe. Long term consequences can be gloom.
I know this ka man. Ka li kossa chipesha mano!! Good seeing him online after such a long time
“the offloading of maize on the market is in line with the agency’s mandate to ensure that grains are released from the strategic food reserve to help stablise the prices of the staple food.” Come on guys, does he mean all this time he didnt know the mandate of the Agency???
THE OPPOSITION WILL HAVE NOTHING TO YAPP ABOUT NOW… PF & PRESIDENT SATA ARE GREAT.
you are the scum of this Earth, if you are an older man i would slap you, *****. actually you are a grown man. so people have to panic pay 25 pin more meanwhile FRA have maize rotting?
CNP You have to wait this far
ULICHIPUABA FYE IT IS NOT STABILISATION WE ARE LOOKING FOR, WILL THE PRICE OF MEALIE MEAL REDUCE DOWN TO WHAT IT WAS. I DO NOT THINK SO THE DAMAGE HAS BEEN CAUSED GREATLY. PF ARE JUST FOOLS.
He will flood the market and prices will come down but is that a long term solution, inputs are late that means next year more of the same will need to be done flooding the commodity but the problem will be that there won’t be any maize to flood. CNP laughing at the monkeys ass in front of it forgetting it also has the same ass.
Please note that opposition like that of SATA in the past is good to provide checks and balances. There is no reason whatsoever why Zambians should be subjected to panic buying of Mealie meal. This problem was solved a long time ago and SATA knows it.
umu guys alikosa but he doesnt even look mascular, ok mpamvu ni mu ma bonzo zoona…….
this government does not think. it should regulate the sale of maize and meal-meal so that they can keep an eye on this commodity. the members of the public who wish to be buying maize directly from fra should be licensed so that they (grz) are able to keep an eye on their activities before hunger plunges the whole country.
No! No regulation. None!
Solution: Promote the production of more!
Let people exploit the markets at home and abroad.
FIRST TIME SEEING A LIST OF MILLERS SINCEÂ KAUNDA’SÂ TIME AND HIS VIGILANTES.
These quarks, they mean to tell me that all this time while people were queuing for the commodity which was nowhere to be found, there was maize stashed away?  how do you stabilize the price of maize when you wait for the price to go up so much? they mean they want to regulate it where it is, well, if you knew a bit of economics then you would understand what sticky pricing is. The price of a commodity can go up easily but not down, it will stay where it is now no matter how much maize you offload now unless you introduce a ceiling price. these people are all fools, or is it that the people in government also own milling companies, thereby personally making a killing from the current situation?
Yes even rotting, some more grains are still un-collected by Fools Reserved Armatures. And the same guys have companies that are benefiting from the same maize, so when there is a shortage they enjoy it because ba fee colour make alot of money during that period of suffering.
Corn meal is now scarce in Zambia! What a shame, we are really in trouble!
The man in the picture must be carrying about 125kg of mealie meal on his head!! I thought there were labour laws against this. Where is Shamenda………….
BA SHAMENDA ABA PUBA FYE.
Hope the borders will be checked properly because much of this will find its way into Congo. Congo has a deficit because RSA is not giving them as much as they have done before
So is this offloading from strategic reserves or just an “offloading to stabilise prices”… almost sounds like some window dressing going on. Nonetheless would be great to have people stop queuing and remembering KK’s UNIP…Â
Zoona ebu Chimbwi No Plan ubu one can wonder what ministers do in their offices all day long if it was campaign period, we could have been seeing them with posh vehicles everywhere, but now since it is mealie meal shortage they throw it to the dogs because they are able to fill their bellies and there is no food shortages in their homes. Day by day we are learning something from the govt so that next time politicians come for campaigns we will close our ears and open our eyes and God will be on our sides.
Flooding the market is fine so long it is not only for stabilising the price of mealie meal. The government must also ensure that this will restore the pre-shortage prices. If this does not happen, government will clearly be to blame for allowing the shortage in the first place, and then causing the prices to rise – as if to get more tax revenue from the traders. And while I am on this, the government should actually ensure that ZRA collects every Ngwee in taxes from the revised prices the mealie meal dealers are selling the commodity on. This might deter some of them from increasing prices unnecessarily. One cannot but see the greed and lack of patriotism these mealie meal traders are showing. A shortage of an essential commodity is not an invitation to increase the price!
Keeping prices down will ensure “More money” in people’s pockets.
this goverment is not serious they exported maize meant to be offloaded now and they have offloaded maize meant for 2013 wait and see what will happen around june to october they will have nothing to offload, we will see the price we will be paying next year, planning is very important
You are right on spot. they are CNPs all of them. you will see next year how things will go bad and people will run mad, I can see somebody in plot 1 collapsing and dying there and then.
dont ride on borrowed terms from Zimbabwe.
#9 Bee, Price stickiness existence can be attributed to several different forces, such as the costs to update pricing, including changes to marketing materials that must be made when prices do change. Part of price stickiness is also attributed to imperfect information in the markets, or non-rational decision-making by company executives. Some firms will try to keep prices constant as a business strategy, even though it is not sustainable based on material costs, labor, etc. Mealie meal my dear brother/sister, unlike wages & services is not that inflexible to pricing based on demand. If demand for mealie meal declines due to operation flood the market the millers will respond by reducing prices so that they can meet their profits through higher turnover.
Iwe Mule @ # 17, all peasant farmers start consuming their own maize meal produced in 2012 by June 2013, so what r u talking about? Most of U should start having small holdings like some of us to stop being loud alarmists for nothing! Ala iwe!
I produced 250 bags of maize, sold 200 bags to FRA and remained with 50kg bags I am consuming with my extended family. When you characters are complaining, I keep yawning because you bore me too much.
economically speaking,based on the law of supply and demand,increase the supply to a point where it slightly beats the demand.This will automatically lead to reduction in the price of mealie meal.its also a good way to reduce the CPI(consumer price index)which is the main gudge of inflation on a specified product,its a good move to curtail the sky rocketing prices of mealie meal.its also a good way of stoping the hachigabalas from monopolising and hiking prices.
Fart that sound like Bwiiiiiiiiiiiii! or Potototopuiuiuiuiuiu! or Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! this fart
I do not think prices will come down to where it was, it is impossible with these CNPs. they are all fools, they have already done the damage that will be very difficult to reverse.
flag lone ro says:
Thu Dec 20 at 2:27 pm
I do not think prices will come down to where it was, it is impossible with these CNPs. they are all f.o.o.l, they have already done the damage that will be very difficult to reverse.
You economists, can you say something about Demand and Supply functions with respect us CNPs? You do not seem to understand how Governt made easy operates.
CNP will drain there Reserves this YEAR forgetting these NEXT YEAR. This is proper spitting in the wind.
include officials from ACC to avert simingly innate corrupt tendancies
Why is the shortage of maize flour such a big deal? Is maize flour the only food that we, as Zambians, can think of as a staple? As far as I am aware, maize is not even indigenous to Africa. It was domesticated in the Americas and is just one of those foods that were introduced to Africa not so long ago. But the irony is we have become so hooked on this grain that any slight disruption in supply sends people in a panic mode spending so much time and energy just searching for maize flour as if there are no suitable and affordable alternatives to think of. What were people eating prior to the advent of maize? What about sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes, plantains (bananas), Irish potatoes etc.? Can these not be eaten or consumed in the exactly the same way we consume maize flour?
Tttttttttttttttttt!