Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda says Zambia will not resort to Maize imports this year because the country has enough stocks of the staple food.
But Mr Lubinda’s statement contradicts President Edgar Lungu who recently revealed in Chipata that Government is working on modalities of importing Maize from Brazil in order to meet the shortfall.
Addressing a media briefing on state of the country’s food and agriculture sector at Government Complex, Mr Lubinda said Zambia still has 1.3 million metric tons of Maize in its strategic reserves.
Mr Lubinda said the stocks are enough to last until the next harvest expected in August this year.
He also assured that no Zambian will starve as the Government is doing everything possible to make the staple food available to all.
The Agriculture Minister said despite the poor rainfall recorded so far, Zambia still has enough maize stocks to last until the 2016/2017 harvest.
He said by 19th January 2016, the country had 1.3 million metric tons of Maize being held at the FRA and the Grain Traders Association and the Zambia National Farmers Union.
Mr Lubinda also revealed that the Food Reserve Agency has signed contracts with 91 milling companies and is releasing 100,000 metric tons of Maize per month to keep the prices of mealie meal affordable.
He warned that anyone found smuggling Maize out of Zambia will be prosecuted and blacklisted.
Mr Lubinda has since implored law enforcement agencies to act sternly against all illegal Maize exports.
Flip flop?
Last time i checked the maize stocks at Kapiri Mposhi was wet and rotten because it was not stored properly.
No serious investor can take the current regime seriously. The only solution is to boot them out.
With these schizophrenic pronouncements they want us to return them to power? No ways!!! Suppose some investor out there wants to set up a multi -product maize processing plant, what policy confidence is there for them in this government where the president and the minister are busy issuing contradictory pronouncements on the same mater? Get your facts right as government before you go public. You are running the national economy that should attract foreign players to boost your national reserves instead of you borrowing day in day out.
This PF awe mwandi. But I believe Given Lubinda more than that Edgar Dancing Lungu. Does the PF cabinet still seats? We miss Sata days, when he used to put it on TV, and calling them useless ministers.
Mr Lubinda, can you please phone the President, and if he is not drunk or on holiday, tell him this before he BORROWS another few billion US dollars at huge interest rates to fix a problem that does not exist!
You could also suggest he takes a little bit of time off from campaigning and traveling to do the job the people of Zambia are paying him to do.
While you have him on the phone, you could also tell him he is overdue for a mental check up. His delusional dreams of growing maize under irrigation when there is NO ZESCO are a definite symptom of overuse and abuse of alcohol, and he is in serious need of treatment!
This is serious bo Lubinda. Are ya guys kidding me? Has our president developed Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Let’s not play the 14 million plus people you guys be serious and embrace accountability. At least we have the numbers 1.3million tones check. This is Feb 1 will see how you flip flop again. IWe Chanda organise a press briefing and stand corrected at least.
In PF who carries more weight the President or the minister? If the minister what he is saying it is true, then did the President consult before making pronouncements? If the minister is misleading the nation, who will discipline him?
Zayello na eve? Mu zanke eve ama kolewa tu jameisoni chabe, manje eve kodi ni chani camene abaila???
Kodi ni dobo nanga ni viyani???
Dimwit, you have made my day! My thoughts too…
Two conflicting statements from the minister and his boss. Who is fooling who now?
What do you expect from him and his boss, the guy has a hookah smoking pipe next to him at work , he could have been high on something when making this statement.
Indeed, I ask, who is fooling who?
Two conflicting statement. Who is fooling who?
Is His Excellence ECL being fed with wrong information? Is it that he is travelling too much and not having meetings/briefings with or from his ministers to know what is going on? Why are Zambian people being given differing information from the President and his minister? Who is telling the Zambians the right status of Maize situation? Or is His Excellence being undermined by his ministers? Difficult to understand.
PF, you are arming the opposition with bullets to shoot at you, so don t be surprised when people or opposition condemn current government, its this simple things that makes a difference.
Zambians Wake Up and vote for competent leaders.
“Some people got everything, some people got nothing. Some people got hopes and dreams, some people got ways and means.” – Survival
How do tell that some one is compented without any trace record of running an organisation.mind you raning a personal bussines is different from raning an organisation
Good news to patriotic zambians. we know some unpatriotic zambians will start working against what the mimister said to bring this govt down. I wish HH had reconciled with lungu to bring zambians togather
Yes these unpatriotic Zambians when they look up to the heavens and see there are no clouds they celebrate because the drought spells doom to the PF because they advised the PF again st exporting maize. It reminds me of the Solomon story where the woman who was not the mother of the child agreed to share the child by splitting it into halves. Look at the Nigerian President who promised people that he will get rid of Boko Haram but to politicians it does not matter so long as they get into office while others promised people that there will have more money in their pockets. In short politicians are all the same.
@ Peters – Which person, that has a brain that actually WORKS, wants to reconcile with a failed lawyer that has now also become a FAILED PRESIDENT?
Probably only people that are drunkards!
Didn’t my people before me slave for this country? Now you look at me with that scorn, then you eat up all my corn.” – Crazy Baldhead
Conflicting statements from the minister and his boss. Who is fooling who?
If Mr Lubinda is telling the nation the truth, its unfortunate he gave the President wrong information. Imagine the rebuke the President went through, when he announced that Zambia might need to import maize! In private industry, this would have called for disciplinary action against Mr Lubinda.
No communication at all..bo Lubinda what do you talk about with lazy Edgar when you meet apart from the drinking hotshots in Lusaka?
while cement price has reduced from K 60 to K50, what about mealie-meal ??
Solution: Start EATING CEMENT – it is called “Mphamvu cement” because it gives you mphamvu!!!
No matter how poor you think the leadership of PF is UPND is more poor just short of pathelic.
Not possible DUMB HEAD!
PF have set a GLOBAL RECORD for incompetence that will not be broken for a very long time, if ever!
Kaunda took 27 years to bankrupt Zambia.
Mugabe took 30 years to bankrupt Zimbabwe.
Lungu and his PF have managed in JUST FOUR YEARS!
Both of them (Lubinda and Lungu) are speaking from without because non is quoting any tonnage from expected harvest from the 2015/16 season! Where are the crop forecasts to let us know where we will be at the next harvest season? This is where PF lacks, holistic management of situations coupled with accurate communication.
might import does not mean that they will import. in fact the minister is talking about the strategic reserves to meet the demand,that there are enough stocks up until April. not the surplus maize to use by disaster manage unit if drought season persists.learn to differentiate between the two.don’t confuse the presidents’ statement on the looming hunger situation and the maize for our security reserves by the minister.
I THINK THIS STATEMENT DOES NOT CONTRADICT THE STATEMENT BY ECL, LIKE I SAID FOR THOSE OF U WHO MAY HAVE READ MY COMMENT, I SAID AS AN EMPLOYEE OF FRA WE HAVE ENOUGH STOCKS OF MAIZE SOIME OF WHICH CAN EVEN BE EXPORTED AS AT NOW BUT THE DANGER IS ABOUT NXT YEAR GIVEN THE RAINFALL PATTERN THE COUNTRY IS EXPERIENCING AND NOW THIS JUST CONFRIMS MY STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF AGRIC. THE PRESIDENTS STATEMENT WAS ONE OF LOOKING AT THE FUTURE WHICH MOST OF U CALL FUTURE PLANNING AND AM 100% CERTAIN THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS NOT UNDERSTOOD WELL. THANK HON LUBINDA FOR THE ASSURING STATEMENT. NEXT YEAR IS WEN THIS DEFICIT IS LIKELY TO OCCUR BUT IN AN EVENT WEA WE CAN IMPROVE ON STORAGE FACILITIES, WE CAN EVEN GO BEYOND NEXT YEAR.
@Makasa,
Thank you for the update that you provided in your last contribution. Its amazing that an employee like you is trying to clarify the status that is supposed to be done by our so called leaders. Honestly, the President was NOT misunderstood, he never said the information he was providing to the nation was a forecast.
Guess what, your HON LUBINDA, just read your last comments, and used that information to issue this statement. Otherwise, why did it take him so long??? BTW he did not EVEN provide any reference to the President ECL `s statement, he is really RUDE. Its a stub in the back of the President, don t you think?
Zambians Wake Up and vote for competent leaders.
My concern is as follows: The current El Nino weather pattern was forecast way back in August 2015. On BBC they announced that the whole southern part of Africa, South America and the East Asian regions would face El Nino weather pattern. For those who do not know El Nino:- This is a weather pattern that is unpredictable and it encompasses periods of drought, periods of very heavy thunderstorms alternating in an unpredictable manner.
Now with all these facts why didn’t the Minister of Agriculture embark on a nationwide campaign to sensitize mainly the small scale farmers (especially those in rural areas) and warn them about the impending El Nino. When faced with El Nino the following must be done:
1). Farmers must prepare their fields early.
2). As soon as the first rains fall…
When faced with El Nino the following must be done:
1). Farmers must prepare their fields early.
2). As soon as the first rains fall plant the seed.
3). If the first seed planted withers due to drought or gets washed with thunderstorms then the farmer must be equipped with enough seed to replant as soon as stable rains fall again.
4). During El Nino as short as ONE WEEK DELAY in the above steps could spell doom for the farmer.
Too busy campaigning to do sensible things like that!
is it not this same Lubinda last month who told us that the maize stocks at FRA will last upto July this year. What has changed? There is just too much inconsistent in PF. We need to chuck out these F.o.o.ls in August
UPND CADRES SLOW DOWN, YOU FULL OF MISINTERPRETING EVERYTHING THE PRESIDENT SAYS. HE SAID IF NEED RISE THAT WE IMPORT MAIZE WE SHALL DO THAT SO THAT NO ZAMBIAN DIE FROM HUNGER. SO LUBINDA IS JUST SPEAKING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRESIDENT HAD PUT IT. BOLA PANSHI, YOU LIKE CAUSING ALARM, THATS YOUR NATURE WITH YOUR KADANSA WHO IS DESPARATE FOR PLOT 1 AND FOOLING NAMAKANDO THAT HE IS APOLOGISING. LOL
I can never seize to be amazed with PF incompetence.Ati “he said if need arise…”While.You mean to say with all government machinery at his disposal[and government machinery is not just about organising and dancing at annual balls],the president has no clue right now if we shall need maize imports?What a hopeless lot.
Country men and women, our dear leader never said Zambia will import maize. It was actually HH who wore his suit and impersonated him to make those utterances so that it will appear that there is confusion in our leadership ….kikiki yaba!
Remember the nice song “Who Is Fooling Who”?. The next thing to come is ”government has issued ban on making of statements concerning the food situation in the country”
When pf was in opposition cadres never used to insult like these Upnd minions. This only goes to prove a point that this party will never taste power. Imagine if they became in power which will never happen, they will be insulting everyone who criticizes them and create a dictatorship. Stewpeed hydiots.
@ HH Techilema: What makes you think everyone critising PF is UPND? They are more than 14 Million Zambians, out of which only a small fraction are PF and another small fraction are UPND. From a neutral ponit of view it looks like PF is always bitter with UPND for reasons beyond our understanding. To be safe, avoid insulting others for you do not know who you are insulting.
21% inflation and all we hear ati it’s ” grobo”.
The pipo are suffering and angry, what do you expect??. Clueless theives.
WE KNOW YOU
Lubinda says there are enough maize stocks to last till August. On 20th January, this was the news;
“The government is looking for possibilities of importing maize from South America as the entire region does not have enough maize stocks,” President Edgar Lungu is quoted as saying in the Zambia Daily Mail.
Zambia’s maize stocks would only last until June, Lungu told the newspaper. Lungu’s spokesman Amos Chanda was not immediately available to comment.
The southern African nation harvested 2.6 million tonnes of the staple in the 2014/2015 season and drought could slash this year’s output by 30 percent”
They want to steal….
CROOKS BUYING TIME AT LEAST UP TO ELECTIONS.
I really could not stand RB as president. But at least his MMD government had structure and direction. This PF is not things, sivinthu!!!
Well this was Fred and Nchitos choice PF
Chipante pante Football no direction.These when I tell you that they are useless you don’t believe me.Even at Mulungushi rock of authority last they were behaving like wild beasts crossing a river.Wait and see how they will mess each other after may Gratuity.
….I wish FRA should have announced this…the trouble is, I have little faith in what politicians pronounce…. in the end, 98% turns out to be a lie….
…a good example is what Yaluma said about load shedding on 9th July 2015….he announced that load shedding will end soon and this is January 2016 and its gotten worse…later he changed to 2017…..
In a normal world normal people reassess the situation, count or recount the stocks of maize that maybe avalaible. If the reassessment shows that actually there is more maize than was originally thought or calculated, then you dont import. Actually Amos Chanda just last week announced the option including the one I have mentioned. It’s good that we now do not have to import. But some people do not want any good news for Zambians they would rather we suffer if it can get them votes. Anyway those don’t live in the normal world and they are not normal people themselves .
These pronouncements about importing maize while one says we have enough are meant to cover stealing. Next they will say we had to borrow so as to import maize.
They know zambians have short memory and are struggling to survive. Watch this space, next we will hear we had to borrow more manee for maize imports.
Lack of co-ordination
Kano Nibena
This is not lack of coordination and you cant even call it incompetence.The English word or phrase to describe PF performance is yet to be invented.This is unprecedented.
Where does ECL get the i fo that feeds the country? Is it from his ministers or his drinking partners? I believe what ever the boss says he has reviewed it and analysed before saying it in public or feeding the nation.We are right to say ECL is an alarmist who is danger to the nation.After his alarmimg statement many people started stocking more maize than they need now but for the coming months thus spending which would have to other need ventures just to stock up maize which wont be in short supply this year according to Lubinda.What does PF cabinet discuss mwebantu kanshi?I take it that the PF Cabinet are only good at discussing how to accumulate more loans and to fix the opposition through the POA.This PF government is a true Micky Mouse one.I hope Bo Lubinda will not be fired for…
@Dimwit, Lungu has taken just four years to bankrupt Zambia, are you kidding? No wonder you call yourself dimwit. January 2015 to January 2016 is 4 years for a Dimwit!
@ wise (ha ha ha) head.
Read again. Said Lungu AND HIS PF! How long has PF been in power? How long has Lungu been part of this PF Government? Read again!
Anyway, THANKS FOR AGREEING THAT PF HAS BANKRUPTED ZAMBIA! However long it has taken.
Month
Price
Change
Jul 2015 179.60 –
Aug 2015 162.74 -9.39 %
Sep 2015 166.01 2.01 %
Oct 2015 171.39 3.24 %
Nov 2015 166.03 -3.13 %
Dec 2015 163.95 -1.25 %
Jan 2016 146.06
If you computer January Change in Future Prices You will see the Potential to import in view of slap in yields to meal and export to earn some dollar over those exports to countries such is Congo and others when you have FX to move around with
Same with Fuel You import when prices are very low and sell same to create those reserves to meet those Bonds and other maturities
Its not like for…
consumption alone but taking advantage of prices and conditions to arbitrage and profit
Volumes in fuel imports and sales in local and exports can be huge comparable to copper similarly opportunities for maize
Take advantage of the effect of oil and commodities fallout global and oppotunize on the positive wealth transfer to reverse those payments in reserves that caused those exposures to Create a buffer that others cannot potentially and structurally exploit in the region
For instance LOOK its projected that the fall back in oil from historical supper cycle to now will transfer back to previously importing countries at premium , $US3 trillion a year Countries that export to global consumers and Zambia should be in the position to ABITRAGE and USE Its balance sheet in same fuel prices or maize to create such reserves
It’s not a FIXED single minded asset class…
a VIEW of ASSETS and Movements in prices Long-term creating forecasting the CAPACITIES and CONSUMPTION in the near regions profiting appropriately
Mind you Its cheaper to produce maize in Americas than in Zambia currently also but learning the curve and growing the sector to be competitive is also key
@jonathanmahango
Do you really think that the clueless clowns in PF have any capacity at all to even understand 1% of what you are talking about?????
If you do, you are just as clueless as them!
I suggest you stop wasting your time and effort.
Lungu and his gang can’t even understand 50+1, let alone the principles of arbitrage!