A renowned Malawian investor , Atusaye Kajala Mwafulirwa of Kajala Investment has expressed worry over the country’s continued loss of forex through the importation of maize flour from neighbouring countries, a development he says would easily be managed through value addition by the state grain buyer and seller- ADMARC.
His thoughts follow the flooding of maize floor from Zambia and Tanzania on the Malawian market imported by both local and foreign business men.
Kajala says the importation of products that can locally be produced by the country consumes alot of forex which can be used to import critical commodities which the country is struggling to import due to shortage of forex.
“These foreign markets have found stable market for their maize floor in Malawi because we don’t have a grain and milling company here to produce such product , we can easily overcome the challe by empowering ADMARC to embark on value addition and be producing the flour itself rather than just buying and selling maize,” he said .
He said Malawians flock for the foreign maize flour because they have no option to buy the locally produced product.
“We only have local vendors who sell maize flour processed in our local ordinally maize mills and they sell it even at higher price than the imported one , we can positively change this scenario if ADMARC focuses on value addition .
The ecomic commentator who is also producer of Kajala cooking oil which is highly praised by Malawians on the market added that the initiative would also help the country’s attainment as a producing and exporting country, rather than, importing and consuming nation.
Our snap check survey indicates that a 1 kg of Zambian maize flour is being sold at K1, 200 while the country’s vendor’s produced flour is at K1, 500 or K1, 400 per kg.
“If you check their prices no one can control the local vendors because we don’t have a major producer, this tells us why people are flocking for the foreign maize flour than ours of which in the end drains alot of our forex because we can’t import using our local currency,” he explained.
He said the country harvest more maize which is able to sustain a grain and milling investment hence the need for ADMARC to take advantage of the available opportunity.
“It’s really sad to see even top maize growing such as Kasungu import yhe maize flour from Zambia because they can’t access the product locally. This must be a worrisome development to the nation,” said Kajala.
Kajala further advised the country’s business community to invest in maize flour production in order to increase the supply.
“If we can have more maize flour production companies then the local flour will be ready available on the market.
This will help to reduce the price of local maize flour and increase its demand thereby reducing the import demand foreign flour and control our forex,” he said.
While concurring with Kajala, a Northern based social commenter, Jackson Msiska said the saddest development is that part of the maize that Zambia use to produce flour is illegally bought from the country.
Ministry of Agriculture is in record saying the Chakwera’s administration is already in the process of making sure that all “dead” companies that helped to boost the country’s economy are back to life.
