By HELEN ZULU –
THE Zambia Weights and Measures Agency (ZWMA) has urged traders to ensure that all instruments used in trade are approved to promote fair trade in the country.
ZWMA public relations officer, Diana Ngula said there was need for traders in the country to ensure that all trade instruments including weighing and measuring equipments were type approved and met the requirements on ground.
She said this at the on-going 90th Zambia Agricultural and Commercial Show in Lusaka.
Ms Ngula said it was important that all imported instruments used in trade were type approved by ZWMA to ensure that they meet the requirements to be in the industry.
“We are emphasising that immediately equipment is imported into the country, let it come to ZWMA for it to be type approved, this will reduce speculations from the public on where particular equipment is coming from.
“The equipments when brought to ZWMA, we run some tests to ensure that the instruments are able to stand the taste of being able to run in the industry,” Ms Ngula  said.
She noted that the use  of accurate, type approved weighing and measuring instruments ensured accuracy of quantities and promoted fair trade in the country.
Ms Ngula explained that it was an offence for any trader to sell pre-packaged products that were under measured adding that any trader found wanting would be fined.
The agency recently charged and fined National Milling Company and APG Milling K 60,000 and K 71,000 respectively, for the offence of offering for sale, bags of 25kg and 10kg mealie meal which were short of the weight stated on the package contrary to Section 32 (1) (b) of the Weights and Measures (Amendment) Act no. 12 of 2003.
“The importance of the use of accurate measuring equipment in business cannot be over emphasized, as this is the only sure way to have precise quantities of commodities produced, packed and offered for sale to the general public,” Ms Ngula said.