FRA will buy maize at K65 for a 50kg bag

The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has some bad news for farmers in the country, announcing that they have set K65 as the buying price for a 50kg bag of maize in the 2018 crop marketing season, representing an increase of K5 from last year’s price.

Announcing the price this morning in Lusaka, FRA Board Chairman Joe Simachela says the price was arrived at after several consultations with various stakeholders.

Simachela has however clarified that the K65 is not the floor price but the price at which the agency will buy the crop from farmers.

And Simachela has indicated that monitoring of grain moisture content as a standard requirement by international standards for purchase of grain for storage has been ongoing and purchase of maize is expected to begin in the first week of August.