The Food Reserve Agency FRA has announced that it will purchase a 50 kg bag of white maize at K150 in the 2021/ 2022 crop marketing season.
FRA Board Chairperson Kelvin Hambwezya told journalists in Lusaka that the agency will also purchase a 50 kg bag of soya beans at K500 and 40 kg of paddy rice at K200.
Mr. Hambwezya says the FRA purchasing price of white Maize has increased by 40 percent from the previous crop marketing season and farmers will be paid as soon as they deliver the commodity to FRA.
He says the agency anticipates that its prices will not disadvantage the private sector that is expected to purchase the larger share of the 3.6 million metric tons of maize.
Mr. Hambwezya says that in setting these crop prices for 2021, the agency expects accrued benefits to the farmers in that they will be provided with readily available market access closer to their localities through the 1200 satellite depots to be established country wide.
And Mr. Hambwezya said with the FRA prices, there will be stimulation and growth of rural economies for the farmers as well as local service providers such as transporters.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hambwezya has said with this year’s bumper harvest and in line with government policy, millers are being encouraged to buy sufficient stocks of their own from the farmers to sustain their milling business.
