The Maize Price Spike of 2012/13: Understanding the Paradox of High Prices despite Abundant Supplies

Nicholas Sitko and Auckland Kuteya

No 171871, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Abstract: The 2012 harvest was, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock national food balance sheet estimates, a major surplus production season. However, by November the same year, Zambia started experiencing widespread maize meal shortages and skyrocketing maize meal prices. Responding to these shortages and price spikes, the government increased the price subsidies it provided on maize sold by the parastatal Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to large-scale maize mills and imposed de facto price controls on maize meal by threatening to revoke the business licenses of commercial maize mills if retail prices of a 25kg bag of maize meal exceeded kwacha rebased (KR) 50. Despite these efforts maize meal prices continued to rise, reaching as high as KR100 in some markets by February 2013.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Security and Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:midcwp:171871

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.171871

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