The two parties signed the agreement in Lusaka over the weekend in which the grain traders would supply 245,000 tonnes of maize to the millers who would in-turn flood the market with mealie-meal to ensure that the price reduces to K85 from the current price of K105 for a 25 Kilogramme bag.
The agreement came days after a deadlocked meeting between Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya, the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) and the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ).
The meeting had been ordered by President Lungu.
Referring to the agreement between the two parties, Ms Siliya said the Government was happy that the millers and the grain traders had acted in a patriotic manner.
“I am happy that the millers and the traders acted with patriotism and after a two-day negotiation, they signed that the grain traders would supply them with 245,000 tonnes of maize, while the Food Reserve Agency would supply their 300,000 tonnes. The prices of mealie-meal should then reduce countrywide to K85,” she said.
Ms Siliya said this when she featured on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Sunday interview programme on Sunday evening.
Ms Siliya said even though it was a free market, the Government would ensure that mealie-meal prices were within the reach of many Zambians.
The Government would continue to facilitate for a situation that allowed the commodity to be affordable, but would also promote a private-sector agriculture industry.
Ba fika.la what happened to the solar milling plants? Its high time we started rioting over politicians lies…
PF bandits are just yapping as usual! These PF bandits of visionless & vodka Lungu found a 25kg bag of mealie at K30 in 2011, but under illegal PF it is now over K110 country wide in 2017. Everyday PF propaganda dwellers in spreading their short legged lies, keep on yapping that mealie meal prices soon. This has been a song since August 2016 by PF bandits. Inyokola njala lelo, mwapya.
Ba ponpwe fye~PF!
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Hop yaaa billions of that abused kwacha were spent on solar maize mills, to reduce price to K45.
If don’t did drop to that k85, can Dora be jailed please?
Looks like price fixing which is illegal
Thats $200m disappeared via a silly Presidential directive…i wonder how many of these useless things have been imported so far…
I bet this applies to those along the line of rail the rural areas will still suffer high prices, and how sustainable is this reduction to K85 for how long will it hold? Farmers must start feeling the hunch of what is to come for the 2016/17 harvest cycle on maize floor price! IT WILL ALSO BE FIXED NOT COMMENSURATE WITH PRODUCTION COSTS! For a free market economy this is price fixing for government to save face for its quality failure to solve this over politicized perpetual problem! Farmers should fight for upholding tenets of free market liberalism allowing for disposal of grain where they make gains. However those gaining from FISP should be the only ones forced to respond to government controls for their benefit!
35 or 85???
25
The grain traders have no choice but to sell the maize they have in Zambia, there is an export ban, this meeting was not about patriotism, but they were threatened that if they dare export they will be labeled as smugglers and the law will visit them, the grain traders are just just trying to avoid the cost of keeping this maize they had intended to export, but once all the maize is mopped by the market, we will go back to the usual K100 above.
Smuggling is still rampant on the congo border and the guys are now very smart because they are using cement bags to cover the 25 kg bags and then seal with glue so that no one can suspect that it is mealie meal they are carrying. Police and the zns know about it…but since it’s somebody’s livelihood no one needs to interfere kaili emo balila and they are also buying from zambian shops.
PF govt showing these Blood thirsty animals that they are delivering! Do these United Party of National Dunderheads know how expensive and how high the demand for maize is in other Southern African countries? Maize is a hot commodity but our govt has managed to reduce the price of mealie meal which is a highly commendable thing! Other govts would do nothing and just watch unless it was an election year but One ECL has gone against the trend to work for the people- this is a true leader we have not these crooks like Hungry Hyena and that GBV, what type of 1mbeciles can follow those 2 chaps-just reading the comments of these dunderheads tells you the character of their s.atanic disciples that only wish evil on others!
@2020Visionless: The “imbeciles” following Hungry Hyena and GBV did not promise the people of Zambia cheap mealie meal. Govt through PF imported Solar milling plants at huge cost to the taxpayer so that Mealie meal will cost K45. Apart from a few privileged individuals, majority of Zambians are going through the difficulty of high cost of living. Lets not politicize everything, we all need to put our efforts together and deal with our problems.
Meali meal will be less than $10 per 25Kg. Ok thats great ba GRZ.
I wont comment. But let me just waste this space by typing something.
Smuggling of maize did not start today. Flooding the market with cheaper maize will assist for a while but as long as the cost of milling is going up the price of mealie meal will continue to rise unless govt wishes to subsidise the cost. Govt in the past years enforced price controls but that failed. History repeats itself.
Thanks for being factual unlike some comrades here who just eat nshima without knowing the intricacies that go with manufacturing mealie meal.
Zambians,lets learn to pick up a hoe and do wonders with the ground/soil that God had given us.Have seen people with tracts of land,but zero production.If we can be,to a little extent,productive- at least a lima,these millers will lose ground for their maize meal and reduce the prices.Lets flood the maize grain,and the results will be amazing.Farming on social media will not help any one.Am off to the fields.Am not buying any mealie meal this year once I do my harvest this year,and it shall go on.In the meantime continue complaining!!!!!
So where does this leave the farmer ? Is it his “job” to provide cheap mealie meal to keep the voting populace happy ?
Most importantly and though not yet reported by LT, the Govt has just imposed a 5% duty on urea and other fertilisers. Again I ask, where does that leave the farmer ?
But maize growing is cumbersome and expensive. There must be a way around it.
Diversify your diet..
I don’t even eat nshima, but I grow maize for sale
We indeed have abundant arable land and reasonable rainfall and it should be a primary responsibility to feed oneself. Just invest a few days of your time once a year to prepare land and plant maize. Using modern farming methods weeding is eradicated. I feed my family and now even my livestock and exempted my family from this uninspiring conversation. Most villagers are self-reliant using this model but some urban dwellers have an overload of foolish pride and cannot work the land. Surely when other nations and designing a mission to Mars, it’s insulting if you fail to feed yourself in this century and sub-contract the State to do that.
Iyo ni pointy
This is a working president indeed..Bravo your excellency and keep it up until the price of mealie-meal reduces to K55..We shall continue rallying behind you, the chosen one.
Is the same thing every year…how do people in West Africa survive without maize? Lazy Lungu has wasted a lot of money on lies. You simply can not depend on one crop for food secruity its a no brainer….
… as a short term just swallow your pride and bring back subside on staple food period….for a long term, try to promote other foods like potatoes, rice, cassava, spaghetti to come at the level of the traditional staple food…K85 is still well off…. K40..K45 somewhere there may suffice
This NEGOTIATED pricing confirms my thesis that the so-called free market economy is just blue smoke and mirrors or cheap voodo! Does it mean that the grain traders and the millers have agreed to shave their profit margins for public good!? Where else in the world does thia happen other than in Zambia where almost everything is FAKE, including market forces.
UNLESS ofcourse that the profit margins ALLOWED to millers and traders is so huge that they can easily shave off K 15 and still leave them with enough to buy VXs, holidays in the Cayman Islands, shopping at Harrods and Mercy in New York, construct huge houses, etc, etc, ……. . Indeed what kind of a Christian nation is Zambia or more crudely, what kind of Christ does Zambia follow!
Comment:Don’t complain about unga,just find s place to grow maize u will be OK,Work hard.
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Comment:back to the land
I
K85 ati babomba just like they reduced fuel with K1? Are these people normal or finkula?
How about bus fares?