By 
Kasama District Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KDCCI) has called for measures to lower the cost of farming inputs to ‘arrest’ mealie meal shortages and price hikes.
The chamber has also made it known that despite serious mealie meal shortages in Northern Province, the region is enjoying good prices of the staple commodity.
Darius Simfukwe, KDCCI president, told Zambia Monitor in an interview on Friday that despite short term measures being implemented by the government such as curbing smuggling, a sustainable measure lies in lowering the cost of farming inputs.
“The government should come up with the long terms measure to resolve this national disaster, mealie meal is rarely stocked in supermarkets, something needs to be done and I think the only way is to lower the cost of fertiliser through subsidies, curbing smuggling is a short-term measure,” Simfukwe said.
Read more : Breaking! Smuggling of mealie meal pushes prices to all-time high of K800 per 25kg bag in border areas
He said Northern Province had the best soils and climate to facilitate maize growing but it was facing one of the waste shortages in the history of the country.
Simfukwe said buying a 50 kilogramme (Kg) bag of fertilizer at K1,100 doesn’t make any meaningful economic sense and was not attractive to farming.
He, however, said despite the shortage, prices of the commodity were still hovering between K185 and K205 for a 25 Kg bag of mealie meal.
Simfukwe also said there was a need to invest in more milling facilities to create competition.
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