by Derick Tsimba

Supply of roller meal is expected to improve soon following the signing of a contract between Government, Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and National Foods to supply maize to subsidize roller meal last week.

Government was represented by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

According to a source, National Foods committed to selling subsidised roller meal at the Government stipulated price of $63 per 10kg pack.

Representatives of wholesalers and retail traders on the roller meal subsidy agreed to continue to sell the product at $70. Government in turn will pay National Foods a subsidy of $73, 90 per 10kg until, 30 June 2020.

GMB has undertaken to allocate 15 000 metric tonnes to National Foods which is expected to translate to 12 000 metric tonnes of roller meal after milling.

The source said GMB shall deliver release orders to National Foods for weekly maize allocation to enable the company to collect all the 15 000 metric tonnes by June 2020.

All the parties in the contract agreed that National Foods needs constant supply of electricity to fulfil the agreed terms.

National Foods promised to immediately mill its own 15 000 metric tonnes of maize stocks in order to supply the market which GMB will replace over the period of the agreement.

The source said the Ministry of Industry and Commerce would form a verification team to visit National Foods each week for the validation of the previous week’s subsidized roller meal to inspect market deliveries.

On successful completion of the verification, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce shall submit National Foods’ validated documents to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

The contract is expected to improve the supply of maize in the urban areas. The country had been hit by a shortage of maize for roller meal following drought experienced during the 2018 to 2019 farming season.  Government has kept its promise to source maize abroad to ensure no one dies of hunger.