By ANDREW PHIRI and REBECCA MUSHOTA –

A shortage of mealie-meal has hit Ndola and Livingstone districts with major retail outlets running out of the commodity.

A check conducted by Times of Zambia in Livingstone yesterday revealed that the two Shoprite outlets had no mealie-meal while Spar had few bags of the commodity by mid-morning.

At Maramba Market, a 25kg bag of National Milling breakfast was going at K67 while roller meal was at K56.

Some millers and traders talked to attributed the shortage of the commodity to non- availability of maize on the market.

Mwasimu Milling is currently selling a 25 kilogramme bag of breakfast meal at K60 from the previous price of K55 two weeks ago while the price of roller meal has increased to K55 from K50.

Musanza Milling is selling a 25 kg bag of breakfast meal at K65 from the previous price of K58 while the price of roller meal has increased to K55 from K48.

Speaking in an interview in Livingstone, Mwasimu Milling director Mukuwe Imbwela said his firm stopped producing the mealie meal because the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had not yet started off-loading maize on the market.

He said his firm was being forced to buy maize from Kalomo at a high price which they passed on to consumers in Livingstone.

“Maize has become expensive and difficult to find so now we have had no production as we are getting it at K1, 700 per kg from Kalomo because the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has not yet started selling maize to millers,” Mr Mukuwe said.

Meanwhile, mealie-meal traders have expressed concern at the escalating prices of the commodity from the wholesalers.

The traders said they were forced to hike the retail prices because the commodity was becoming scarce to get.

In Ndola, mealie-meal continues to be scarce with most popular outlets running out of the commodity of which price is varying from K64 to K75.

A check at Ndola’s Shoprite yesterday found that there were no stocks of 25 kg breakfast mealie-meal bags that were initially going at K64 and K65.The shop had stocks of 10 and 5 kg mealie-meal bags.

In Chifubu Township however, the mealie-meal was available in most shops with the average price being K75.

A check at Major Trading found stocks of 25 kg Simba mealie-meal going for K75.

The National Milling retail store in town the centre had K25kg bags of breakfast mealie-meal going at K64 and roller meal bags going for K45.