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FRA's decision to sell maize locally won't distort prices,says Mulenga

FRA's decision to sell maize locally won't distort prices,says Mulenga
By Mutuna Chanda
Thursday November 01, 2007 [03:00]

THE Food Reserve Agency’s (FRA) decision to sell maize locally will not distort market prices, Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) chairman Caleb Mulenga has said.

In an interview, Mulenga said FRA had recently consulted stakeholders, including MAZ, of its intention to sell maize on the local market.

“FRA wanted to offload 150,000 metric tonnes. In fact it is us who proposed that they sell 50,000 metric tonnes every month. We did not want them to enter the market without agreeing on the amount of maize they were going to sell because they have the capacity to distort market prices,” Mulenga said. “By now all serious farmers have sold their maize. The only ones who are remaining with maize are traders and millers. Millers have stored their maize for production.”

He said the 50,000 metric tonnes of maize that FRA was selling on the local market at US $200 per metric tonne was within the price ranges that small scale and commercial maize was sold at.
“Small-scale maize prices are at US $190 per metric tonne while commercial maize prices are between US $ 205 and US $ 210 per metric tonne,” Mulenga said.

And Mulenga said any price changes in the cost of mealie meal were expected to be within the range of 10 per cent.

“The only changes in the prices that are expected are seasonal variations. For example, if you buy maize in October and you are going to use it in January next year, there are costs related to storage and so the maize will be more expensive by the time you use it.

Prices are expected to be within the same ranges but if there are any increments they won’t be drastic,” Mulenga said. “Even when you look at the price at which FRA is selling maize, it is between small scale and commercial maize prices.”

FRA has announced that it intends to sell 50,000 metric tonnes of maize on the local market at US $ 200 per metric tonne.

Labels: FRA, MAIZE

posted by MrK @ 5:32 AM