Zambia can supply region with mealie meal – millers

Sat, 27 May 2017 11:07:23 +0000

BY MAILESI BANDA

ZAMBIA has the capacity to feed the Southern African region and beyond with the meali meal produced from local milling companies, Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) chairperson Andrew Chintala has disclosed.

Mr. Chintala explained that Zambia currently had a 3.4 million tonnes commercial milling capacity per annum while Zambians only consumed 1,440,000 tonnes over the same period.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, he disputed assertions by the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ) that the millers had limited milling capacity and could not afford to produce mealie meal for export.

“As MAZ we are disappointed by the remarks that we have limited milling capacity because we have the data base for commercial millers and the in-stored capacity is currently at 3.4 million-plus tonnes per annum and this does not include the solar milling plants being run by Zambia Cooperative Federation and other small scale millers,’’ he said.

He explained that this meant that Zambia had enough equipment to produce over 3.4 million tonnes per annum, adding that once the total local market was catered for the millers still remained with over half the capacity to produce more.

He stated that with the current capacity, Zambia had the potential to feed the region and beyond.

He said that the growth of the milling sector would encourage the export of value added goods because that would lead to the creation of jobs and the growth of the economy.

He appealed to the Grain Traders Association of Zambia to work with the millers in the export of both maize and meali meal.

“There are two markets that are being dealt with and people are interested in either of the products. We call upon the Government to allow the millers run at 100 percent capacity by promoting the export of mealie meal because currently there is no miller that is running at 100 percent as most of them are running at 70 percent and below,’’ Mr Chintala said.

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