Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) National Coordinator, Gabriel Pollen, says First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has volunteered to transport 4,000 metric tonnes of maize from Tanzania to Zambia at no cost to the government.
This is contrary to speculations that FQM has been awarded a contract to transport 650,000 metric tonnes of maize from Tanzania to Zambia.
Dr. Pollen says FQM will bear the transportation cost of the maize at their budgeted amount of USD 500,000.
“FQM will move the commodity from Tanzania to FRA storage depots in Kapiri Mposhi in Central Province and other depots on the Copperbelt,” said Dr. Pollen in a statement issued in Lusaka today.
He said FQM’s voluntary assistance will be carried out using their returning copper anode export trucks that will bring in maize that the DMMU is importing from Tanzania.
Dr. Pollen said the transportation volunteered by FQM represents only 0.006% of the tonnage of maize that needs to transported to Zambia from Tanzania.
And Dr. Pollen said the maize imports purchased by the Zambian government through the DMMU have since started arriving in the country to address food insecurity following the drought of 2023/2024.
By Eva Hatontola
