By CHATULA KANGALI –
SOME farmers in the country are still holding on to the wheat produced in the last farming season, thereby creating an artificial shortage on the local market.
On the other hand, millers in the country want Government to allow them to import wheat because the local crop is too expensive and if procured, it would lead to an increase in the prices of bread and other related products.
The Government has, however, urged millers and farmers in the country to negotiate the price of wheat produced locally.
The local wheat is currently fetching US$4,500 per tonne while the imported commodity is pegged at $3,700 a tonne.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Maxus Ng’onga said in an interview that there was need for the millers and farmers to negotiate the price of local wheat.
He said the Government would not allow millers to import the commercial crop which was also produced locally.
“We cannot allow millers to import wheat which is locally produced because we have enough. If we allow millers to import the crop now, our economy will be negatively affected,” he said.
Mr Ng’onga explained that Government had no intention of subsidising wheat because it was a commercial crop and that it would continue to regulate imports of the commodity and other crops produced locally.
He urged more farmers in the country to consider investing in wheat farming.
