Government will continue to implement strict measures that will result in a significant reduction of mealie-meal prices so that every citizen can afford to buy the staple food.
Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said Government’s resolve was to ensure that prices of mealie-meal did not exceed K65 per 25 kilogramme bag.
Ms Mwanakatwe said this yesterday when she commissioned a 10-tonne milling plant in Bauleni Township in Lusaka.
The milling plant, established under the Presidential Solar Milling Plant programme, would produce 25 kilogramme bags of mealie-meal which will cost K65 each.
The minister said the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had supplied 600 bags of maize to the facility which enabled the plant to start operations upon commissioning yesterday.
She said consumers should not panic about food security because the FRA had enough maize to feed the population up to the next farming season.
Ms Mwanakatwe said the high demand for Zambian maize and maize products was an opportunity for private investors to invest in agriculture because the country had a favourable rainfall pattern.
She said Zambia was better-placed to supply the local and foreign markets because neighbouring countries were willing to import the maize and its products.
The milling plant commissioned by Ms Mwanakatwe yesterday was the second such facility to be established in Bauleni Township.
Commissioning a white elephant like Hearses and mobile hospitals. These african leaders bwafya zo-ona
Explain to us how this is a white elephant Mr Smarty pants?
But due to PF failures and the mealie meal is beyond Zambian’s reach, costing over K135. 90% of people in Zambia are living under absolute poverty.
So, Ms Mwanakatwe, relay that message to PF & Lungu. Stories day and night out of which are always conflicted with more propaganda tales following day.
Surely don’t pretend to not have seen those queues like the KK days, even queuing for salt? Its not just the exaggerated costs, where is the maize at FRA which PF was yapping about? The commodity has vanished from eyes of the hungry, whilst PF is blaming its failures upon the opposition & globalism.
Bye bye PF in less than 3 months. 3 weeks parley is melted, Colossal Sunami of PF.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
This project is a white elephant because it won’t break even. Even the initial 600 bags were donated by FRA. The government is struggling with money to pay salaries and pay back debts. How do you expect this to go on? This is a joke. Instead of empowering the citizens so that they can buy the mealie meal at economic prices, GRZ is keeping them poor so that they keep begging and living on handouts.
When you pay back the loan that should have benefited the poor it will come down to K65.
@House Fly, just a point of correction, The Hearses are very much in use across the country. Go to the council offices you will find these motor vehicles parked there. The only unfortunate thing is that in urban areas, they are not very much used due to the many options, but in rural areas these vehicles are very much in use. As for the mobile hospitals, same as Hearses, for us in the rural areas, we have seen these facilities being used very much. And we have all appreciated their services.
The fact Maggie is that it is costing more than K65 and upto K110 in some places.So the population sees no sense in you a government leader suggesting that it ought not cost that much when the fundamentals of our economy that should support cheap mealie meal are weak.This leadership is academic and the solar milling plants are nothing but a social experiment that hinge more on cheap politicking than addressing the hunger situation in the country.The people of Zambia will surely repay you in kind on 11 August 2016.
Looks more like hocus pocus abracadabra way of arriving at mealie meal prices than economic principles. Dudu, you can do better than that!
Mealie meal, I command you to come down to k65, ZMK I command you to drop to k4/$. Has she paid her CEEC loan BTW? Even just one installment twapapata….
“The milling plant, established under the Presidential Solar Milling Plant programme, would produce 25 kilogramme bags of mealie-meal which will cost K65 each”
Is it feasible to build a plant that will produce 25kg bags of mealie meal or such other? I thought the product comes as bulk and then packed as required. The price on other hand appears to have its own mind …
Why call it Presidential Solar Milling Plant programme? It’s just a programme, that should be properly managed and thought out. The production cost even be higher conventional plants. Show us the numbers.
this an admission of failure. If unga shouldnt cost more than 65 pin and it is costing more than 100 pin, then by your own words you have failed. Thats the problem of having a party and government of multiple spokesperson
The reason it costing over 100 is because Miller’s who are mostly opposition have all resolved to punish Pf govt. Since govt doesn’t want to force the market price for the commodity as our economy is a free market, they have come up with a project to counter the private sector. You all heard how gbm boasting of stocking millions of tonnes of the grain ready to export as a way of fixing govt so that citizens can revolt. We only hope that these solar mills Wil all be in full swing to offload the commodity on the market and see what happens to the likes of gbm and others. In short these cretins are even going to help govt because they won’t continue hiding the same for the next 5months. What will soon happen is They will loosen up and flood the market and bring the price to as low as 30…
Bwana minister, what is the long term solution? We can have a million milling plants but if there is no maize to mill, what the heck? What we need is a properly thought through agriculture strategy and an accompanying marketing structure. How is the govt going to support the small scale farmer? What incentives are there for this farmer? How does the govt work with the big commercial farmers? and in all this, the minister of agriculture is asleep!!!
If I were a farmer, why would I invest in agriculture in Zambia when u will get paid $160 for my maize. In Southern Africa the current price is just under $300.
I might as well farm elsewhere.
Sure, there was a crippling drought this year, but that doesnt mean there has been a quantum shift in rainfall patterns and that Zambia alone will receive good rains in future.
After 2 to 3 years of El Nino, we get heavy rains called La Nina.
This entire subsidisation of cheap mealie meal for the masses costs the Treasury $800m per annum. Its the first battlefield for the IMF.
Pathetic leadership, they can’t even make a single favourite staple of Zambia available on the shelves. No wonder Norway is pulling out of the country. They have given up dealing with thick headed leadership incapable of learning anything. 50 years of independence Zambia should have mastered the science and art of handling maize so that it’s always available cheaply even in drought spells like Joseph did in Egypt. They should know by now that Zambians haven’t eaten anything if they haven’t eaten ubwali. Rice, potatoes, bread, cassava are considered as something to snack on or starters before or after ubwali. They fought long battles with the soldiers and police and kicked out a dictator because he couldn’t make this item readily available. History is repeating itself on 11/8/2016
Because pathetic and selfish politicians like GBM are holding maize to punish PF. Don’t you get it?
@ Mr X
The shortage is due to sheer incompetence by the govt who haven’t got the math how to have the commodity on the shelves. Holding the maize or smuggling it out of the country is being perpetrated also by PF govt officials. You can’t blame it on one GBM. Lets accept the fact successive Zambian govts haven’t got it wrapped up where making this single commodity available all the time is concerned. It’s got worse under PF because it’s officials simply don’t know what to do. They are always blaming somebody else or external factors, anything but their incompetence.
Ba mwanakatwe ushe Ni chigayo ca nyoko. Does FRA also provide SUBSDISED spares for milling plants? and subsidised salaries for employees at the milling plant?
WOW NOW WE HAVE ENOUGH MAIZE TILL NEXT FARMING SEASON – WHERE DID AL THIS MAIZE SUDDENLY COME FROM…..????? I WISH THEY WOULD MAKE UP THEIR MINDS, FIRST THEY EXPORT EVERYTHING SAYING WE HAVE ENOUGH MAIZE WHEN WE DID NOT,, THEN THEY BAN ALL EXPORTS SAYING WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MAIZE AND NOW AFTER 4 DAYS WE HAVE ENOUGH MAIZE ……TIME FOR PF TO CONSULT SO THEY CAN ALL STICK TO THE SAME LIES AND NOT HAVE DIFFRENT LIES !
Maize has always been there and enough to last many months to come. It is people like GBM and his GREEDY type (Millers) that have been hoarding maize/meali meal so they can export it—and this is after cheaply obtaining it from FRA/Govt.
Hear it from the HORSE’s OWN MOUTH (GBM) right here on LT (below) under the title: “GBM’s Recorded Conversation with Zambian Voice Chilufya Tayali.”
Now after listening to what GBM himself has confirmed is what is going on, and still believe these people (crooked/selfish millers) have not engaged in subversive tactics to cause unnecessary alarm when it comes to the issue of “artificial” maze shortages, then you are beyond redemption!
Go to bauleni and buy a 25kgs of ubunga@K65,,,
ZCF bunga,,,its their in bauleni
Yes, mama in Kasama the price of mealie meal (ubunga) is K35 where these malfunctional solar grinding mills were first set up.
This was the promise from PF government of E C Lungu.
PF legacy ‘Donchi kubeba’.
FRA has supplied 600 bags of maize to the Bauleni facility………. How may households are there in Baulen? This governement is a joke….
Serious its a joke. How can a machine just produce 25kg bags of mealie meal per day. this means there will always be shortages of the commodity because it cant not meet the demand for the population. Bauleni is a big compound with a population of over 70,000 people. 25 bags sure! this is rubbish
In China where these solar milling plants were imported, they are used in what’s called COTTAGE INDUSTRY! (What you term small scale) They can not withstand the grind of long hours of commercial production. The importation of these milling plants is just another scam and someone is smiling all the way to the bank.
Someone Chinese probably
Please lets stop stone age politics of supporting which every political parties just because we support that tribe or hate a particular tribe.We must look a what each candidate presidential or whatever level based on what they are able to bring to the table.I would love to see an atmosphere were GRZ is commended for its efforts by the opposition and questioned were they have made a mistake.Manje everything is oppose oppose oppose ne fi le panga sense
This ex-MMD vulture is simply campaigning for Lusaka Central using taxpayers money as all of Sata’s friends have been sidelined