ZABS SHOULD ANALYZE WEIGHTS – HAMUKALE

By Arnel Chitundu

THE Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) should analyze and determine the volumes and weights being measured using a gallon, Agriculture Scientist and Economist has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Edify Hamukale said some sellers were shrinking the size of the gallon by either adjusting the base position or shrinking its diameter.

“In a year of food scarcity like 2024, some unscrupulous sellers are making customers pay more for less. A gallon is used in measurement of kapenta, beans, groundnuts, caterpillars (finkubala), salt and maize in open markets with a lot of disguised cheating,” Dr. Hamukale said.

A gallon used in open markets to measure commodities such as rice, beans, groundnuts and maize. It is used to measure volume and not weight.

He said a gallon was a controversial unit of measurement as there was a lot of cheating experienced in the process adding that the greatest challenge currently prevailing was cheating in the measurement of maize especially that it was in low supply.

He recommended that ZABS took interest in the gallon and either officially accommodate it amongst the units of measurement or define what it measured exactly, between volume and weight.

He explained that ZABS should state what really should be accepted in Zambia about the gallon if it was here to stay.

He reiterated the need to take keen interest in the gallon as cheating was quite rampant at the moment, especially that maize was in high demand and people would be paying more while not getting value for their money.

“ZABS should step in and define what a gallon is in as far as measurements of volume and weight is concerned,” he said.