Malawi is still hauling in relief maize weeks after the lean season ended on March 31, raising questions on whether government misjudged food needs or is quietly plugging a larger deficit.
National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) says it has so far brought in 98 418 metric tonnes (MT) out of the 103 000MT sourced from Zambia for the hunger response and that deliveries are now nearing completion.
NFRA senior marketing and corporate affairs officer Arthur Mpakeni said in an interview that the final consignment is expected by the end of this week.
“So far, approximately 98 418MT have been hauled into the country. If all logistical arrangements go as planned, we should receive all the maize by the end of this week,” he said.
The maize, bought with World Bank funding, is being channelled into the Strategic Grain Reserve with part of it already allocated to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) for relief.
Malawi signed a deal with Zambia to purchase 200 000MT of maize for the lean period covering six months from October 2025 to March 2026.
But by March 30, a day before the end of the lean season, about 90 000MT had already arrived, meaning that deliveries have continued even after the hunger period the imports were meant to address.
During the launch of the 2025-26 Lean Season Food Insecurity Response Programme in Machinga on November 1 2025, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Roza Mbilizi said total requirements for the food security cluster stood at K168.82 billion ($96.42 million), but only K46 billion ($26.18 million) had been mobilised.
Meanwhile, the Transporters Association of Malawi spokesperson Frank Banda has said Malawian transporters moved about 50 000MT, with the remainder handled by their Zambian counterparts.
The imports were meant to support over four million people identified as food insecure during the lean season, according to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee.
