Residents in Samfya district in Luapula Province have called on government to quickly address the smuggling of mealie meal which they say has led to high prices of the commodity.
Elizabeth Bwali, a resident of Samfya who described the prices of mealie meal as unbearable and says smuggling of mealie meal has resulted in high prices of the commodity in the District.
Ms. Bwali complained that a 25 Kilograms bag of breakfast mealie meal is costing K250 while roller meal is at K200.
Ms. Bwali described the prices as too much for an ordinary citizen to afford.
Ms. Bwali was complaining to Luapula Province Minister Derricky Chilundika when he visited the district to check on the mealie meal situation.
And Christopher Chishimba a mealie meal trader also said his business had gone down due lack of stock for the past three weeks.
“My business has gone down because I have not been selling for the past three weeks and my shop is empty so I have just decided to close it until the situation normalizes,” he said.
And Luapula Province Minister Derrick Chilundika assured the people that government is looking at ways of further reducing the prices of mealie meal while curbing smuggling.
Mr Chilundika told the residents that government has also continued to give subsidized maize to millers so that the prices of mealie meal could be reduced.
“As government, we are working tirelessly to ensure that mealie meal prices are normalized, this is why we have continued to give subsidized maize to millers,” he said.
The GRZ needs to address efforts to diversify zambias main foods.
The whole country can’t depend on maize meal alone.
This is a very dangerous predicament