Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) discloses that Millers bought 700,000 metric tons of maize during the 2019/2020 maize marketing season.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Association President Andrew Chintala said this represents 60% of the targeted purchases of 1.8 million tonnes of maize for both human and livestock consumption.
Mr. Chintala stated that the current stock figures could be less due to the continuous production of finished products from the purchased stock.
And Mr. Chintala revealed that Millers are still active on the market although maize is currently scarce, as the supply of the commodity was not as expected.
“The maize purchased by millers during the 2019/2020 maize marketing season is around 700,000 metric tons representing, 60% of the targeted purchases. However the millers are still active on the market though maize is scarce currently.”
“Maize supply was not as anticipated, if you look at what was announced in terms of the crop forecast survey, so we had expected that the market will have been flooded with the maize so that whatever the target millers had would have actually met that target easily but it hasn’t been an easy season for us just like maybe the other players Food Reserve Agency who had indicated that they were going to buy 1 million metric tonnes, they equally did not meet their target,” Mr. Chintala stated.
He said there are some traders who are offloading the maize on the open market at prices ranging between K195 and K200 for a 50 Kilogram bag.
“So we have continued with whatever is being offloaded. I am sure there are other traders that entered the market and procured some grain which obviously they intended to release during the peak period such as now. These are the people that are offloading the maize on the open market at prices ranging between K195 and probably K200 for a 50 Kg bag.”
“When the marketing season started, players were buying a 50 Kilogram bag around K110 and K120 but coming towards the close roundabout month end of October, I think we had seen a shift from K110, K120 to somewhere around K185,” he said.
He noted that the recent movements in terms of maize buy products has been necessitated by the prices that millers have to pay for in terms of maize purchases on the current market, hence the prices are cost reflective in relation to what is happening in terms of crop prices obtaining on the open market.