It is foolish to assume Millers are arm twisting govt- GBM

GBM Milling Limited proprietor Geoffrey Mwamba says it is foolishness for anyone to assume that millers are arm twisting government over the need to hike the price of mealie meal in the country.

Mr. Mwamba says anyone making such an assumption could only be ignorant about the fact that production costs in the production of mealie meal are not static.

Geoffrey Mwamba

He has told Qfm News in an interview that amongst the costs that go up as a result of demand on the market are those related to availability of maize.

Mr. Mwamba, whose milling company has been operating for over 20 years, says for the fact that millers are not farmers, it is also important to keep in mind that at times Millers make huge inevitable losses.

He says this happens when Millers purchase maize at a high cost at the time the demand is high on the market, but end up making loses when the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) floods the market with cheap maize to lower the prices mealie meal.

Mr. Mwamba says what is however unfortunate is that despite these losses, Millers still carry on with their production without cutting down their targets or jobs to recover from the losses.

He notes that given the current economic crisis, it is expected that the Millers will have to hike the price of mealie meal because the current load shedding has pushed production costs high.