Mealie meal shortage hits Eastern province

Mealie meal shortage hits Eastern province

Chipata, March 1^st, 2013,  ZANIS —  A critical shortage of mealie meal has hit most districts of Eastern Province.

Chipata, Petuake and Lundazi Districts, respectively are some of the districts that have been hit by the shortage of the commodity,

ZANIS  reports that in the provincial capital of Chipata, the two main supermarkets of Shoprite and Spar have run out of the essential commodity. 

However, in the second class area of the District only one named wholesaler had the commodity by 10:00 hours.

A number of traders and consumers were found struggled to procure the commodity from the truck even before it could be offloaded into the shop.

At Kharti Brothers , the commodity however ran out by 11: 00 hours as the commodity was bought by small retailers who later resold it at KR65 from the recommended KR53.

And when spoken to James Phiri who trades in the  second class trading area said he decided to increase the price of mealie meal alleging that the supplier had increased the order price of the commodity.

“I had to increase because I need to make a profit from my business,” he said.

A few other traders at Kapata market who managed to procure the commodity from Khatri Brothers were also found selling mealie meal at KR65.

And a check in Petauke found that most of the shops did not have the commodity while the only shop that was selling mealie meal was selling a 25kilogram bag of breakfast meal at KR58.

People were queuing up at Petauke Fashions at the Central Business district.

Meanwhile in Lundazi only one shop, Nayonayo investment had the commodity selling at KR65.