By Logic Lukwanda and Lomphande Phiri
President Edgar Lungu has directed that all millers receiving maize from the Food Reserve Agency under the tripartite agreement should flood the market with the commodity in three days’ time.
Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo who revealed this today after meeting millers at his office, said the president wants all millers involved to avail the mealie at the cost of K136 per 25 kilogram bag of breakfast meal.
Mr. Lusambo said government will monitor the situation and ensure Lusaka residents have the mealie meal readily available at the recommended price of K136.
He described the current shortage as artificial and triggered by unscrupulous individuals wanting to put the name of the government and president Lungu in disrepute.
Meanwhile, the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has released a total of fifty-seven thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven metric tonnes of white maize under the tripartite maize programme signed with the Millers Association of Zambia and the Grain Traders Association of Zambia.
FRA Public Relations Coordinator, John Chipandwe says the released maize was out of a total of seventy-one thousand, six hundred and eighty-nine point nine one metric tonnes of white maize that the agency is required to contribute to the tripartite agreement.
Mr. Chipandwe has indicated that the agency still has a balance of thirteen thousand, seven hundred and three metric tonnes of maize yet to be released to millers covered under the tripartite agreement.
He added that the total maize allocation under the tripartite agreement was two hundred and ninety-three thousand, six hundred and forty-three point five metric tonnes out of which a total of two hundred and twenty-one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three point fourteen was an allocation to be contributed by the grain traders and millers with their own maize.
PHOENIX NEWS