By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has called for the rolling out of medium milling plants in remote districts of the country to help mitigate the high cost of mealie meal.
Programme manager for social and economic development Andrew Simpasa said to reduce the prices of the staple food, medium scale milling plants should be introduced in the remote parts of the country.
“The recent announcement by the minister of Agriculture and Livestock Given Lubinda to reduce maize prices will only enrich large scale millers in the country,” Mr Simpasa said.
He said the reduction in the maize prices would only give room to millers to extract more profits than meeting the intended purpose.
Mr Simpasa said during a seminar on the Cost of Living over the weekend that it was surprising to note that in areas like Chipata District had one of the highest prices of mealie meal despite being a maize growing area.
“In Chipata the average price of mealie meal is about K80, which is why we think the first level of intervention is in medium scale milling because the current mealie meal production is too centralised,” he said.
The recent Basic Needs Basket (BNB) assessment carried by JCTR indicated that places such as Chinsali and Chipata where there were no milling plants, the prices of the staple food were higher than those hosting milling plants.
The second level of intervention was to encourage consumption diversification as sticking to maize as the only staple food was causing unnecessary demand for maize.
“JCTR has embarked on a serious advocacy programme to promote rice as an alternative staple food to maize to reduce the dependence on maize,” he said.
Recently Mr Lubinda announced a reduction in the wholesale price of mealie meal from a maximum K61 for breakfast meal to K56 per 25Kg bag while the wholesale price for a 25 Kg bag was pegged at K37.
The reduction in mealie meal prices was as a result of Government’s decision to allow the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to offload maize on the domestic market at a subsidised price of K65 for a 50kg bag of maize from K76.