By Pemphero Malimba:
The government, through the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), is on Wednesday expected to resume purchasing maize across the country for the nation’s strategic food reserves.
This follows a public notice issued by the agency on Monday this week.
The notice indicates that maize will be purchased at a price of K1,100 per kilogramme (kg), equivalent to K55,000 per 50kg bag, at all designated NFRA depots nationwide.
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“The market is open to all individuals, farmers and traders. Purchases shall be conducted strictly on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that the minimum quantity for sale is 20 bags of 50kg each, equivalent to one metric tonne.
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“All maize presented for sale must meet NFRA quality standards,” the notice states.
The agency has since expressed its commitment to securing Malawi’s strategic food reserves and ensuring adequate national food stocks to safeguard food security.
NFRA has depots in Karonga, Mzuzu, Kazomba in Mzimba, Kanengo in Lilongwe, Mangochi, Limbe in Blantyre, Luchenza in Thyolo and Bangula in Nsanje.
Meanwhile, the agency’s Chief Executive Officer George Macheka was yet to respond to our queries on the quantity of maize the agency intends to buy and its budget.
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The latest development by NFRA at a time the government has released about 36,000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize from the country’s strategic grain reserves for free distribution by the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma).
Part of the quantity has gone to the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) for sale across the country.
Dodma was provided with 26,000 MT while Admarc was allocated 10,000 MT.
The maize formed part of the 38,000 MT that were in the reserves at the time discussions for the procurement of maize from Zambia commenced over two months ago, according to information furnished to the Daily Times earlier this month by the Ministry of Agriculture.
