ZAMBIA and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed on terms to supply maize to that country from Zambian private entities, in a latest bid to stop smuggling.
Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda said in an interview yesterday that following meetings between Zambia and a delegation from the DRC, it was agreed that the Congolese can import Zambian maize held by the private sector.
Last week, a special delegation from the DRC, constituted by that country’s president Joseph Kabila, visited President Edgar Lungu and some ministers at State House in a bid to reach an agreement on how best Zambia could supply that country with maize and mealie-meal.
Many people of the DRC depend on Zambia for their supply of the commodities, which was, however, mainly smuggled into that country.
Recently, Zambia experienced a shortage of mealie-meal, mainly through smuggling, which forced the authorities to intensify efforts to plug the smuggling.
Mr Lubinda said yesterday that the Congolese counterparts were in Zambia asking the Zambian Government to supply them with maize.
“We told them we were unable to supply them with maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), but they could import maize from the private sector,” he said.
Mr Lubinda said Government had issued some private sector players with export permits to trade in maize.
The Ministry of Agriculture had a list of the private sector players that had volunteered information that they had maize.
Those that had applied for export permits were issued with the permits.
Private sector without export permits issued by the ministry could not export to the DRC.
President Lungu directed that there was need to make the trade of maize between the DRC and Zambia official, in order to reduce on smuggling and maximise benefits for the two governments.
Mr Lungu said Zambians and the Congolese were one people, who needed to work together and promote a much more controlled trade so as not to disadvantage Zambians of essential commodities.
The DRC Mines Minister Martin Kabweulu, who led the Congolese delegation, said that the people of that country needed maize and mealie-meal from Zambia and President Kabila wanted to formalise the trade.
Chagwa…please clarify! Has export ban of maize/mealimeal been lifted? Please stop this nonsense when your people have reached an extent of killing each and looting because of hunger. We re watching closely.
But kwena ba PF kuwayawayafye.In the morning u r banning then the ban is lifted in the afternoon only to hav another minister state by evening that the ban is still in effect before the president rubbishes those claims the following morning.Crazy policy inconsistencies ba Ejiga..
Bushe what wrong have the people of Zambia done to deserve this misfortune of a govt?This August 11 tulevotela pabwali and since u have clearly failed we r retiring u in national interest.Ba PF kuya bebele!
This govt of inconsistencies one minute one empty tin is in Malawi taking about Food Insecurity, the next his minter is talking about banning exports, next lifting bans…now this…dont be surprised if its minister’s companies involved in these businesses.
You bloggers are childish, it means you have not been following events. keep quite if you are not aware of whats going on!
@Chishinte: Trying to talk sense to UPND sycophants is like telling a two-year old child to not WHINE! Trust me, these people love their whining, so don’t hold your breath in the hope that they will change.
They love to create an ECHO CHAMBER and then start listening to their own voices regurgitate the same r@bb!sh over and over while patting each other on the back (you know; giving each other those GREEN TICKS/VOTES?!)—and you can just sit back and watch their SHALLOW and SH!TY talk and analyses take off on some juvenile and irrelevant tangents. It is like they live in a BUBBLE insulated from logic and sensible discourse—you know, arguments and contributions that make sense!
These are the minds Kudos, Senior Citizen & the likes of Patriot Abroad are vouching for to govern us for the next 5 years?
Anyway, I leave it up to the majority of Zambians to decide on 08/11
what a backward thinking Government. We should be exporting finished processed products and not raw commodities. ADDING VALUE IS THE NAME OF THE GAME !
I wish people could understand the value chain.
This is the problem wen people choose to listen more to rumours that znbc news..! Stop spending most of your time on watchdog…!
Onother opportunity missed to earn the much needed forex & employment creation. Let FRA appoint wholesalers and distributors in DRC to distribute mealie-meal & National Milling and other millers to produce the commodity. Payment should be by EFT not printed Kwacha in DRC which does not add earning to treasury & is free gift of maize. Some private sector players issued with export permits to trade in maize by Govt is talking about simply means himself and family members plus few Congolese friends. Always putting personal interest first and that of the least.
FACT:- Mr. Given Lubinda and President Lungu are giving conflicting directives w.r.t. food security, in particular Maize.
FACT:- Zambia is in dire need of jobs for its citizens.
FACT:- By allowing exporting of Maize without milling it into mealie meal locally, Mr. Given Lubinda and President Lungu are denying Zambian millers business and a chance to create jobs for Zambians. Instead they are exporting business and job creation to CDR as ‘imbasela’ to that Country, over and above the exported maize. What they are doing is actually ‘VALUE SUBTRACTION’.
Now, which of these facts does any well-meaning normal functioning adult fail to understand?
SHORTAGE OF FOOD IN THE REGION IS GOOD FOR ZAMBIA. ZAMBIA CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION BY PUMPING MORE MONEY INTO AGRICULTURE SO THAT ZAMBIA INCREASES THE NUMBER OF FARMERS- MAINLY THE YOUTH AND WOMEN BY MORE THAN TEN-FOLD AND PRODUCE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF TONES OF MAIZE, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME CONSTRUCTING STATE-OF-THE-ART SILOS IN ALL BORDER TOWNS MAINLY TO STOCK MAIZE FOR EXPORT TO THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES AFTER VALUE HAS BEEN ADDED. WHAT IS NOT EXPORTED IS SOLD TO THE MILLERS AT A VERY LOW RATE TO EVEN BRING THE COST OF EATING NSHIMA VERY LOW. I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY ZAMBIA SEE THE SHORTAGE OF FOOD (MAIZE) IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES AS A PROBLEM INSTEAD OF LOOKING AT IT AS A REAL SOLUTION TO ZAMBIA’S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS BY INCREASED UN TRADITIONAL EXPORTS TO EVEN STRENGTHEN…
I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY ZAMBIA SEE THE SHORTAGE OF FOOD (MAIZE) IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES AS A PROBLEM INSTEAD OF LOOKING AT IT AS A REAL SOLUTION TO ZAMBIA’S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS BY INCREASED UN TRADITIONAL EXPORTS TO EVEN STRENGTHEN THE KWACHA. SOLUTIONS:
1. INCREASE NUMBER OF FARMERS TEN-FOLD FOR INCREASED MAIZE PRODUCTION
2. EMPOWER FARMERS WITH TRACTOR FOR PLOUGHING AND NOT HOES
3. BUILD STATE-OF-THE-ART SILOS IN ALL BORDER AND LAKE TOWND TO STOCK GRAIN
4. CONSTRUCT STATE-OF-THE-ART MILLING PLANTS TO ADD VALUE TO GRAIN BEFORE EXPORT
Agreed, support all above in @Peter.
We must EXPORT TO BALANCE OUR GDP Balance book. What’s wrong with this good decision??
Why not establish a MAIZE GRAIN BELT specifically for export to neighbouring countries with value addition economic benefits to the local farmers and increase our foreign exchange earnings?
I like the value addition idea. Maybe we should be exporting Nshima instead of Ufa (LOL)