By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
GOVERNMENT has set the maximum wholesale price of mealie-meal at K61 per 25 kilogramme bag.

Lubinda

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Given Lubinda said after undertaking consultations, Government had set the maximum price to be K61 for breakfast and K44 for a 25 kg roller-meal bag.
This is according to a statement released by National Agriculture Information Services principal public relations officer Happy Mulolani.
“I would like to appeal to our retailers across the country to stick to the recommended retail margin of K3 per 25kg bag for both roller and breakfast meal,” Mr Lubinda said.
He said retailers should pass on the benefit of the mealie-meal reduction to the consumer saying that he was aware that some retailers in the past had not passed on reductions to the consumer.
Mr Lubinda urged consumers to buy the commodity from milling company outlets and establishments that stuck to the recommended retail margin.
The Ministry of Agriculture, he said, would continue to monitor the mealie-meal prices in order to ensure that the benefit of the reduction was passed on.
Mr Lubinda said Zambia had sufficient stocks of maize as the country produced 3,350,000 tonnes last year resulting in a maize surplus of 1,152,505 tonnes.
The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had 1,281,000 tonnes of maize stocks while the private sector had more than 156,000 tones.
Mr Lubinda said the current high mealie-meal prices were not as a result of insufficient stocks of maize in the country but rather a result of other production related factors like the purchase price of maize, the cost of milling, transportation and regional demand.
He said Government would therefore through FRA continue to make available maize to the private sector at a price of K76 per 50kg bag.
Mr Lubinda also said Government would allow wheat imports to cushion the wheat deficit until August 31, 2015.