Agro-producers fail to utilise Air Cargo

Malawian producers are struggling to make use of Air Cargo Limited which was concessioned to handle exports comprising fresh foods believed to have high export potential.

Airport Development Limited (ADL) chief executive officer Victor Lungu said in a recent interview that despite the installation of facilities for transportation of fresh exports like vegetables, there has been under-utilisation by producers, limiting revenue from the cargo business which is highly dominated by imports.

“The Air Cargo (storage) facility is not receiving enough volumes as it was designed for. And that affects revenue because the company needs to handle volumes to sustain,” he said.

Lungu said despite increasing numbers of passengers on the airports that ADL manages, it is a different story on the cargo business, hinting on the need for Malawians to increase productivity and take advantage of available facilities for exportation of the products which have a huge export market.

However, when contacted to comment on the issue, Air Cargo CEO ThokozaniUnyolo said she was out of office and needed more time to get details.

Meanwhile, experts in agriculture have cited several factors as contributing to the country’s continued failure to increase productivity to support increased levels of exports and value addition.

Former Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Felix Jumbe, who is also a farmer and exporter, says the country has potential to use fresh produce as a key forex earner, supplying within the region and beyond but only when right systems that support value chain development are put in place.

He cited how FUM, under his leadership, failed to make use of Shoprite when it had just come into the country and engaged his organisation for supply of fruits and vegetables to supply its stores outside the country.

Said Jumbe: “We discovered that the structure of agriculture was leaning on subsistence farming and could not produce the quality and quantity required consistently. You cannot support a value chain with subsistence farming, you need commercial farming and that needs supporting systems.”

Another expert, Candida Nakhumwa, who is Foundation of Smoke-free World Agricultural Transformation Initiative country director, acknowledged the lack of value chains as is the case with tobacco and sugar industries, but faulted government on policy inconsistency and limited participation in the development of the value chains.

“If you look at tobacco, government played a role in developing infrastructure. That same level of participation should be seen in other value chains like groundnuts, for example,” she said.

Nakhumwa stressed that no single party can manage to develop a vibrant value chain, saying it calls for partnerships and policy consistency.

Recent research by the Mwapata Institute, on various industries in agriculture also pointed out the lack of value chains as a major issue that affects productivity and potential of the agriculture sector which is largely informal. n