The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) says it has enough maize in its reserves in Southern Province for community sales to last up to April 2020.
FRA Southern Province Marketing Coordinator Stephen Liato says the agency has over 23-thousand Metric Tonnes of Maize and that over 3-thousand 6-hundred metric tons has been sold.
Mr. Liato says the agency sells maize to the community members every day except weekends.
He says Monze Depot services the Southern Region A, which covers six districts namely Chikankata, Mazabuka, Monze, Pemba, Gwembe and Namwala.
Mr. Liato was speaking in Monze when Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo checked on the Maize Stock at FRA sheds.
And Mr. Katambo has urged the security wings in Southern Province to ensure the food situation is not politicized in the region.
He has cautioned politicians to desist from unnecessary politics and speculations regarding the hunger situation, which usually causes panic among the public.
Mr. Katambo said FRA has enough maize in stock and will continue to service community members through the community sales.
He said the Office of the Vice President through the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unity -DMMU- is also on the ground managing the situation.
We were also told we shall have no loadshedding this year ! You just cannot trust this government VERY poor with planning
How long can a 12.5kg green bag of mealie meal last for a family of six in Zambia? Just asking for my neighbor.
If FRA has the political grain, why are they withholding it from the Millers to bring the cost of the white flour down from K150/25kg?
Now thats the official position. Why is double h and his goons worked out?
Thanks Liato and Katambo.
I like this move FRA taking of selling maize grains to the local community rather than selling to millers .
Millers exploits consumers with high prices and taking advantage of vulnerability of the underclass essence in rural set ups.
Forecast if that’s the case why the prices are still high, don’t believe what this government says, they have a niche for telling you what you want to hear rather than the truth. PF took the subsidies away if they didn’t we wouldn’t be having these issues of higher prices
What about that maize they buy from farmers, where do you think it goes?
I think the challenge most zambians have it to employ survival skills when face with difficult situation. I will give you a simple example. If say a 50 kg bag of maize cost k 110 and you take this maize to a local grinding mills and you decide to grind roller meal it might cost you an extra k 30. It will come to k 140 now look at the quantity you are going to have as a family. Now look at the 25 kg bag processed by a miller it will cost you K 140. Compare the quantity. Simple iniative. This time arround there are a lot of SIDO grinding meills in towships. Why should people still wait for these commercial millers to do their millie meal. It’s the mind set. Those of us who were in rural areas in the 1992/93 somewhere there when the drought hit almost the entire country. The same…
FRA’s horrible public relations
Fra how can u sale maize to the community instead to the millers.sign of failure institution
Comment:Zambia consumes about 1.8 million metric tons of maize per annum. This mean on average each province consumes about 180,000 metric tons per annum. This means that each province consumes about 15, 000 metric tons per month. FRA says Southern province has got 23,000 metric tons to last up to April next year, which is 7 months. I want someone to explain to me that is possible.
Comment: The worst government can do is to release maize to the Millers because Millers have no intention of reducing the price of mealiemeal no matter what,let them reduce the price for the Individual to afford