Thursday, March 28, 2024

Legal action must be taken against millers frustrating Government efforts to reduce mealie meal price

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Some of the donated bags of mealie meal
mealie meal
LEGAL action must be taken against millers frustrating Government efforts designed to reduce the cost of mealie meal and have breached the contract by selling the commodity at an exorbitant price, says Democratic Assembly president Maxwell Mwamba.

Mr Mwamba charged that millers frustrating Government efforts to make the cost of mealie meal affordable should be investigated because some of them were selling a 25 kg bag of mealie meal at K115 instead of the agreed price of K85.

This was despite the fact that the millers were receiving stocks of cheaper subsidised maize from the Food Reserve Agency.

He said that the decision taken by the Patriotic Front government to lower the price of the staple food had been frustrated by the same millers benefitting from the reduced price of maize which they were supposed to pass on to the consumer through a reduction in mealie meal prices.

Mr Mwamba claimed that the country had continued to ‘‘suffer collateral damage’’ by having children with malnutrition due to the unaffordability of food caused by high mealie meal prices.

“The Democratic Assembly is calling for legal action to be taken against millers who have breached the agreement designed to reduce the price of mealie meal and are frustrating Government’s efforts designed to make the cost of mealie meal affordable,” he said.

Mr Mwamba urged law enforcement agencies such as the police to investigate the matter, saying it bordered on food security which was a national security issue.

The opposition leader said that there was need to set up a commission of inquiry into the matter and if facts were established that the millers breached the contract, punitive measures should be taken such as the withdrawal of their operating
licenses.

Millers and grain traders had signed an agreement which was expected to result in the reduction of mealie meal prices to K85.

The two parties signed the agreement, underwritten by the FRA, 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 reduced to K85 from the current price of K105 for a 25 kg bag.

23 COMMENTS

    • Let your pf take the maize to the solar milling plants and produce 25kg bags for K45, this is what they promised their cadres. Pa chigayo chili changa iwe mwamba unipeleke court, tell your father to buy one for you, nichi gayo cha nyoko?

  1. FRA paid grain traders $270 per ton.

    Millers then pay FRA $220 per ton.

    Net effect: every taxpayer is paying a subsidy to millers of $50 per ton.

    Meaning the Govt takes from tax revenues and gives back via cheap mealie meal. Overall, there is no benefit to the taxpayer.

    Every person in Zambia is a tax payer through VAT on all goods, fuel levy, etc

    So net effect to taxpayer is nil. BUT it makes the politican look good, and thats the true purpose of this whole exercise

  2. Does the President or the Minister ever react or call meetings when Urea prices shoot up ?

    This is a Ministry dedicated to look after millers.

    There is no space for farmers interest in the current Ministry.

  3. This is Rhetoric of an Anti-business regime! If you travel a lot, you will realize how cheap your mealie meal is at K200 a 25kg bag. Mealie meal is fetching anything upward of K250 in DRC! Instead of threatening millers, a good government will find good ways of maximizing profitability for millers and bringing the much needed FOREX through export of mealie meal and stock feed instead of selling raw maize like what the politicians did in the Malawian Maizegate scandal! We have wrong chaps in government and forget about any turnaround of our economy at this rate! Government should have no business in business! Communist ideologies don’t work!

  4. What What about legal action against that obese corrupt woman called dora. Failures always blame others. Why can’t pf accept they have failed.they have power so why are they failing in everything.

  5. The reduction of Mealie meal prices has nothing got to do with Miller’s. Dunder heads, you think they were no Miller’s in the past. As usual you have to blame somebody, what type of people are you. You think when your friends left mealie meal at K30, they were no Miller’s. And Miller’s should just frustrate you? How callous? Just start working

  6. The two serious time wasters in our country are PF and UPND. Both think just yapping around and spending half of their lives on Lusaka times makes them popular

  7. Why not taking legal action on those who exported maize to Malawi and evidence is there that the transaction was filled with corruption?
    This is the only disease of many Zambians for we only bit about the bush when we know the truth?
    Any update on the reduced prices of meal meal due to the loan we got for solar milling plants?
    How are we going to service these loans for the solar milling plant and who is going to pay the loan is it ZCF or Zambian tax payers?
    Zambia a country of wastage.

  8. Some millers like GBM were struck off the subsidiesed maize from FRA for political reasons by PF. They can charge what they want to cover costs.

    now they have no one to blame.

  9. Mr Max Mwamba should just take advantage of the business opportunity and start producing cheap mealie meal than thinking of worsting the court’s time.

  10. Poor planing, incompetence, lack of consultation, gridness, this country will not develop. The poor and the voiceless will always be robbed of what belonged to them

  11. Dummy, let the markets play out. The governments role is to promote cost efficient farming methods such use of machinery by all farmers- including peasant farmers.
    It’s not government business to set prices, however its government business to create a productive environment.

  12. It is the millers in southern province or the UPND who are hoarding maize meal until 2021.

    During last elections that’s what we were told.
    .

  13. When the leadership cannot understand that unless production is increased, then there will be continued shouting by vandals for reduced prices due to ignorance!

  14. DOES THE GOVERNMENT UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS COSTS TO MILLING MEALIE MEAL? THERE IS ELECTRICITY MACHINERY MAINTANANCE LABOUR COSTS BAGS THREAD FOR STITCHING MACHINES FOR STITCHING TRANSPORT AND MOST IMPORTANT THE PRICE OF MAIZE. MILLING IS A BUSINESS AND THEY MUST MAKE PROFIT

  15. The government may as well sign contracts with millers willing to shed the flour price from K105 to K85, and make follow-ups on the market to make sure the terms of the contract are adhered to. Punish the millers selling the flour at more than the recommended price for breach of contract or conspiracy.

  16. Yes you are buying MM at that price because you are all crooks. You buy MM in bulks to sell a cross the border so millers knows that you can not eat all that mm you are buying in a month so who are you blaming? you should blame your selves. Let the mm stay in their shops just buy what you can eat and the price will go down otherwise the price will skyrocket even more.

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