By ANDREW PHIRI –
FOLLWING Government’s move to offload subsidised maize to millers, mealie meal prices in Livingstone’s Shoprite and Spur outlets have gone down.
A check in Shoprite revealed that a 25kg bag of breakfast was now selling at K59.99, while roller meal was pegged at K39.99 as Spur was selling a 25kg bag of breakfast at K65.90 and roller K44.90.
Musanza breakfast meal in Spur had maintained the old price of K72.60 for a 25kg breakfast bag, while roller meal was still at K54.80.
A 25 kg of Pembe’s breakfast and Mealile mealie meal in Shoprite had also maintained their old prices of K73 and K77.99 respectively.
The situation in markets was different from two supermarkets as the survey revealed that old prices had been maintained in the trading places for various brands of the staple food.
A check at Maramba market showed that a 25kg bag of national milling was selling within the ranges of K72 to k73, while roller meal was maintained within the old ranges of K54 to K56.
The situation was not any different at Dambwa central market were Musanza breakfast 25kg was selling within the ranges of K72 to K74.
Some retailers talked to in the markets said they had maintained old prices because they were still getting orders from the millers at the old prices.
Nathan Malimba a trader at Maramba market said Mwasimu and Musanza milling were still supplying them mealie meal at old prices, hence the difficulty for them to adjust the prices down wards.
“The millers here in Livingstone have not reduced their order price for mealie meal. We are still getting the commodity at the same old price so we can only adjust if they also bring the price down,” Mr Malimba said.
A miller, who opted for anonymity said despite Government announcing that millers would be supplied with subsidised maize, they had not yet seen that come to reality.
The miller said they had found it difficult to get maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in Livingstone because they had not yet been given a go ahead by the FRA head office.