Admarc given up to Sept 30 to open markets

The delay to open more than 1 000 Admarc markets nationwide has attracted the wrath of the Agriculture and Irrigation Committee of Parliament, which has given the State grain trader until  September 30 to open the markets.

This means Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has only seven days to open the markets.

Authorities are yet to come up with the new price for selling the staple grain, and Admarc, which has been selling the maize at K110 per kilogramme (kg), indicated the markets will only be opened once the new prices are announced.

Admarc management and board submitted their new prices to Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development for approval.

On Tuesday this week, the parliamentary committee summoned Admarc officials and at the end of the meeting, it was resolved that the markets be opened at the end of this month.

In an interview on Wednesday, the committee’s chairperson Joseph Chidanti Malunga said that while they appreciate the bureaucracy that is there in government, the opening of the markets is a priority; hence, the need to speed up the price approvals.

He said: “We know that in as much as they would want to comply with the deadline and open by September end, bearing in mind government bureaucracy, the market would not be opened unless government, in this case Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, gives the nod to the revised prices.

“To this end, we have also summoned officials from the ministry on the same because we feel it may not be possible to decide on the price within the specified 10 days.”

Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda referred Business News to the ministry’s spokesperson Hamiton Chimala who could not be reached on mobile phone yesterday.

Admarc chief executive officer Foster Mulumbe on Monday said that while it is critical to have Admarc depots opened by now owing to the prevailing hunger situation and stubbornly high prices, the corporation will only start selling maize under the new prices.

In March this year, Treasury gave Admarc a guarantee to borrow up to $10 million (K7.3 billion) for maize purchase in the 2016 marketing season. n