Retail prices of mealie meal in most parts of Chipata district in Eastern province have been hiked.
Prices of a 25 Kg bag of breakfast meal has gone up by up to K5 while that of roller meal has been increased by K3.
A check by ZANIS in the Central Business District revealed that most retail and wholesale traders have adjusted the prices upwards citing an increment in the order price by millers.
In Spar a 25 Kg of National Milling breakfast is now selling at K70 from the previous K68, while a 10 Kg bag of the some brand is fetching at K30.
In Shoprite store a 25 Kg bag of breakfast meal is selling at K66 from K64 while a 10 Kg bag is selling at K28 from K24 and roller meal in both leading supermarkets was not available during the survey.
Some traders talked too attributed the increase in the price of the country’s staple food to changes in ordering price effected by milling companies.
Samuel Sakala, a selling agent of National Milling, said the millers have also hiked the prices without giving justification hence having no choice but to do the same.
And Chipaso Banda, a retail trader at Kapata Market, expressed concern that the increment is too much and if left unchecked will impact negatively on the lives of consumers.
He also noted that the shortage of roller meal should also be quickly addressed to cushion the impact as some consumers will prefer to buy a cheaper brand.
Meanwhile, a consumer, Martha Chibalika, has urged government to intervene, adding that mealie meal is a staple food of the country and any changes in its prices is likely to affect the well being of people.
Yesterday, Minister of Youth and Sport, Chishimba Kambwili, ordered millers to reduce the prices of mealie meal, adding that failure to do so will force government to introduce price controls on mealie meal.
@Kambwili
Is he now the minister of commerce,trade & industry or agriculture or just yapping as usually?
He is filling up the leadership gap.
You know in football someone has to cover up his friend when their weakness
kambwili is an 1diot, why introduce price controls on a commodity you do not input anything and it is a free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply? these fruits of not going to school. he just wants to be heard even if it is for the wrong reason. ati balebomba bakambwili. nonsense
don’t worry this is just the beginning, it will be 120 per bag before march
Am not an Economist, am into Occupational Health, Safety and Environment and also into Leadership and Pastoral Ministry.
May be one must first look at the US Dollar against the ZMW. We dont have industry to manufacture things here. Water, Electricity, other usable parts for the Mills and other pumps to run and so and so forth are expensive. When a machine breaks down, the part has to be imported and you buy in US Dollars.
Put up mechanism and bring the dollar down as Mwanawasa did, who brought it to KR2 to a Dollar. People were able to import things and items were cheap.
Pls offer solutions and not just condemn anyhow. Learn from, Felix Mutati Magande Finance and Commerce ministers respectively, what they did when our late president Mwanawasa was still there.
God bless…
U think u can advise PF? Good Luck
This is expected has the market forces take their toll. By much it will reach K100 then there after it will start declining as the 2014 year unfolds. This is the effective trend and seasonality of the mealie meal price in Zambia. Best to avoid the bite of higher maize price for people in Villages is gaisha chabe.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
Let the price of mealie meal double, maybe those folks who are handed ifitenge during PF campaigns will learn that this is a party of BUFI and no direction. They are borrowing heavily and threatening millers to keep the prices down. Market prices dictated by PF policies suggest an upward adjustment to mealie meal prices. More fire on those prices please!!!
What is mealie Meal? I can’t find this word in the Oxford English Dictionary? well from the description in the text it seems its some foodstuff fed to animals here in Korea , china , japan but it seems edible to less privileged humans in zambia. What happened to the likes of mongu rice?makoroni, vikanda are they not edible in PF Government?