The Coffee Association of Malawi (Camal) says improved domestic coffee prices are encouraging producers, but rising smuggling of the commodity is undermining foreign exchange earnings.
Camal secretary general Kondwani Nanchukwa expressed the sentiments on Wednesday ahead of the opening of coffee market in August, with prices of parchment coffee, or primary processed coffee, surging by 200 percent from K7 000 per kilogramme (kg) in 2024 to K21 000 per kg at the end of 2025.
He described the increase as “impressive” for local farmers, even as annual production remains low at 1 000 metric tonnes (MT) from 7 000MT in recent years.
Nanchukwa said that coffee’s contribution to foreign exchange remains minimal because much of the crop is smuggled across porous borders rather than exported formally.
“On the national level, issues of smuggling are undermining coffee’s contribution to Malawi’s economy because most of the export proceeds are not tracked into the formal channel,” he said.
Nanchukwa said smuggling of the commodity is fuelled by a thriving parallel foreign exchange market where foreign traders buy coffee cheaply from farmers and move it across borders.
Data from the 2026 Malawi Government Annual Economic Report show that coffee export values have fluctuated in recent years, rising to $2.8 million (about K4.9 billion) in 2021, falling to $1.1 million (about K1.9 billion) in 2022 and then rising to $1.6 million (about K2.8 billion) in 2023 and $3.4 million (about K6 billion) in 2024.
Usingini Upland Coffee Out-growers national coordinator Dominic Joseph said in an interview that smuggling hurts legitimate growers and exporters.
He cited the Malawi Coffee Strategy, running from 2025 to 2040, as a framework to close regulatory gaps.
Joseph, whose firm acts as a coffee based off-taker, processer and exporter based in Nkhata Bay, said: “This long-term plan focuses on strengthening governance, including establishing a Coffee Control Commission and building capacity through a Coffee Training Centre.
“It will also address climate resilience and market access to reverse the sector’s decline and boost quality and farmer livelihoods.”
Rumphi-based Phoka Coffee Growers Cooperative Development manager Rodney Mbowe said global demand for Malawi’s coffee is rising, particularly from Germany and other European countries, but supply is constrained by vendors smuggling coffee out of the country.
“Our current challenge is how best we can manage our farmers in terms of giving them inputs and advance payments so that we deal with vendors who compromise our projected annual production,” he said.
Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union Limited also decried smuggling, saying it has cut export earnings in half.
The union said it expected to export 350MT of specialty coffee in 2024, but shipped less than 200MT.
During the launch of the 15-year Malawi Coffee Strategy last November, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Roza Mbilizi said the blueprint could transform the sector into a strong value chain capable of earning $240 million (about K420 billion) annually by 2040.
