FARMERS CELEBRATE SKYROCKETING MEALIE MEAL PRICES       

By Jessica Mwansa

WE cannot complain about mealie prices because our farmers are now happy that they are finally benefiting from their hard work, National Union for Small Scale Farmers in Zambia (NUSFAZ) has said.

In an interview with The Scoop, NUSFAZ Executive Directive Ebony Lolozi commended the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) for “proving to farmers that their hard work was not in vain” adding that millers and grain traders have for long been benefiting from the maize grown by the farmers while the farmers themselves were making loses.

He said the Government, through FRA, thought it wise to increase the market price and allow the millers to buy from the farmers in the open market in order to motivate the farmers.

 “The millers have been getting better profits from mealie meal while they offered the farmers less money for their hard work. It is now time for our farmers to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

“More farmers have been motivated to go into maize production and by next year, we will have a bumper harvest of maize from our farmers. It is then when mealie meal prices might stabilize because there will be more maize on the market,” he said.

He said millers and grain traders have increased prices of the commodity on the market due to the increased maize price.

“Millers need to compete for the available maize stalks so that they can buy as much as they can. We definitely expect the price of mealie meal to increase because the price of the raw material has also increased. The millers at the end of the day are left with no choice but to pass on the expense to the consumer.

“As NUSFAZ, we are happy that the small scale farmers whose efforts have been going in vain for a long time have finally been rewarded for the maize that they produce. The input prices have also been increased and at the end of the day, the farmer looks forward to a better price for their maize,” he said.

The FRA has so far paid out K595, 945,280.00 to farmers that delivered Grade A white maize during the on-going crop-marketing season with 146, 948.50 metric tonnes of the commodity having been bought by the Agency. 

The Agency has since advised the farmers that they should not sell all their produce, but only what is excess and after putting aside a variety of food for domestic future consumption adding that this is due to the fact that national food security begins at household level.