Halt maize exports, LM tells FRA
By Mast Reporter
THE decision by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to export not less than a million metric tonnes of maize to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should not be allowed or entertained before taking stock of what the country has, Leadership Movement has said.
In an interview with the Mast, party president Dr Richard Silumbe wondered why government would allow the exports of maize when the nation had not healed from the previous effect of such action.
He said the UPND should be stopped from creating another hunger crisis, wondering why Minister of Information pleaded with small scale farmers to sale their produce to FRA if the country had enough.
Dr Silumbe accused the UPND of a weak memory, saying they had completely forgotten about the depressing hunger situation that hit the country after exporting maize to Kenya and Tanzania.
“The problem we have with the United Party for National Development (UPND) government is that it doesn’t learn from its past mistakes and it is not willing to learn and listen. You can only export after taking stocktaking of what you have and ensure that you have in excess of what you need both for human and livestock consumption. This is what the UPND government should have done. But sadly, they are all interested in making money at the expense of serving the people of Zambia,” he said.
He said failure to engage stakeholders such as millers, grain association and traders would not help the country in ensuring that the country had enough food reserves.
“We have been struggling with maize, we had enough when these guys took over and they rushed to export all at a cheaper price and bought the same maize from Tanzania at a much higher price. Zambians are tired of these games by the UPND, it is time they halt their appetite for business, appetite for selling and consider home first. We need to have more than enough for the country. We need to see stable mealie meal prices, I mean low prices before any such attempts are made,” he said.
He wondered why the rush to export maize instead of the finished product in form of mealie meal.
“This is the problem when you have individuals in government who have no vision to enhance or build a strong economy through manufacturing and production. These guys instead of taking to DRC mealie meal, they want to take maize, who thinks like that surely? We have people who are tired in this government whose thinking capacity ends at exporting maize and not a finished product. That is why we in the LM are saying that we shall promote manufacturing, production, we shall not allow maize to be exported in its raw material like these guys are doing. We shall export mealie meal and other finished products depending on the dictates of the market,” he said.
He said this would be done in order to create jobs for the people as well as making the country’s economy strong.
