Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) President Andrew Chintala has reassured the public that through interventions that have been put in place working with the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the price of mealie meal has started reducing.
Speaking at a media briefing hosted by the United Party for National Development (UPND) Mr. Chintala has disclosed that the price of the commodity has reduced to K165 from K180 in some parts of the country.
Mr. Chintala has explained that one of the interventions that FRA has put in place is the selling of maize to millers at a reduced price of K4000 per metric ton when the price of the commodity is between K5500 and K6000.
He also cited the vans sale program as an intervention to reduce the price of mealie meal and make it available.
The MAZ president states that the intervention involves loading mealie meal on trucks with the price clearly labelled and driving round communities to make the commodity available to consumers.
However, he has acknowledged that unscrupulous people have been buying mealie meal at a reduced price but selling it at high prices to exploit consumers.
He has cautioned traders to be responsible and stop exploiting consumers.
Despite the country having sufficient stocks of maize, the price of its product has skyrocketed to over K200 in some places.
By Tito Kalama