Last Friday, government sent a directive to the Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to raise the price of buying maize from K150 per kilogram (kg) to between K180 and K200/kg.

Agriculture Minister, Kondwani Nankhumwa announced the news, adding that National Food Reserve Agency has been directed to start buying maize at the same price of around K200 per kg. “By so doing, shortly we are going to flood the country with maize, so that we stabilise maize prices in the country” said Nankhumwa.

However, Admarc selling price for maize at Admarc stands at K150 per kg. The development comes as figures from the National Statistical Office (NSO) Stats Flash show that inflation rate increased from 9% to 9.3%. Food inflation, on the other hand, rose by 0.5 percentage points to 14.2% while non-food inflation rose by 0.1 percentage points to 5.5%.

Maize prices on the produce market have also been rising, with a bag of 50 kilogram (kg) fetching K13 000 or K260 per kg in some markets.