ZAMBIA – African Milling Limited, one of Zambia’s largest integrated wheat and maize flour milling operations, commissioned its newly installed maize mill with a capacity of 336T/24H and 50,000T storage.

The official opening of the mill marked the culmination of a joint undertaking between the company and Swiss milling equipment supplier, Buhler who undertook the installation of the modern facilities.

With the new mill, the company has increased the miller’s capacity from the previous 168/MT which was commissioned in 2006.

Africa Milling also operates a 120MT wheat mill plant since the year 2010.

Following the commission, the miller has reduced the wholesale price of a 25 Kilogramme bag of Breakfast mealie meal from 150 Kwacha to 130 Kwacha at the factory which is expected to be selling on the market for 136 Kwacha.

According to African Milling sales and marketing manager Jomo Matululu, the reduction is a result of the tripartite agreement signed between the milling company, grain traders and the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

He further stated that the company is putting modalities in place to also reduce the price of roller meal.

Expansion of the milling capacity within Zambia has been ongoing for several years.

According to the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ), Zambia has a total number of 78 Milling Operations; 20 Large scale ,27 Medium scale and 31 Small scale millers located in four provinces i.e. Lusaka, Copperbelt, Northern Province and Central Province

The opening of the new mill comes months after the National Milling Corporation, an affiliate of American agribusiness and transport conglomerate, Seaboard Corporation commissioned a new US$37.5million milling plant in Lusaka, Zambia.

Installed by the Swiss milling equipment supplier, Buhler, the ultra-modern facility has a capacity to mill 600 metric tonnes of wheat per day.

The company said that the plant will commence wheat milling in its initial stages, with plans underway to start maize milling after twelve months.