THE retail price of maize in Rukwa Region has plummeted sharply from the previous 110,000/- per 100kg a bag of maize to between 43,000/- and 30,000/-.
The drop has been blamed on several
factors, including lack of competitive and reliable markets. In a
mini-survey carried out by the ‘Sunday News’ at Nelson Mandela Market in
Mazwi ward, Sumbawanga municipality, indicates that there is a huge
stock of maize kept in several stores due to a bumper harvest of the
crop this season.
It further shows that the same bag of
maize in rural areas is sold at a throw away retail price of 30,000/-,
while in Sumbawanga town the same bag is sold at 43,000/-.
A cross section of maize traders told
this paper that the nose dive in retail prices of maize was due to lack
of reliable markets and the government ban on exportation raw maize.
The owner of Mwakinga Stores at the
market, Mr Okoa Ambweni Mwinuka, said he had accrued a huge loss over
the plummeting of retail prices of maize, adding that three months ago
100kg bag of maize was sold at 110,000/-.
“Here in my store there are more than
500 bags of maize and previously about two months ago I purchased a bag
of maize weighing 100 kgs from farmers at 100,000/- … before the
government ban on exportation of raw maize, because before that our
reliable and competitive foreign markets were Kenya and neighbouring
Zambia,“ he added.
This maize purchasing season, the
National Food Reserve Agency –Sumbawanga Zone (NFRA) has targeted to buy
only 2,500 tonnes of maize from farmers, while last season the agency
purchased over 60,000 tons of the same.
The latest statistics show that during
the 2016-17 season, farmers in Rukwa Region have realised a bumper
harvest of 1.1 million tons of food crops, while they have harvested
710,652 tons of maize alone, when the actual demand of maize for the
residents of the region stands at over 300,000 tones, which means there
is a surplus of over 400,000 tons of maize.
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