Scarcity of diesel has choked the country’s economy with producers and suppliers stuck with their stocks as trucks are grounded and spending days at service stations hoping to access fuel.
A Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) fuel delivery chart is showing that there is literally no diesel in the country, with less than 10 of the 365 service stations in the country stocking it at the weekend. The diesel shortage comes after petrol users endured three weeks of scarcity.
During spot-checks in Blantyre yesterday, we found that there was no diesel in at least 10 of the fuel service stations we checked. However, there were long queues of trucks, buses and lorries at four fuel service stations despite the Mera chart indicating that delivery was only expected at four service stations in Lilongwe yesterday.
One of the truck drivers we found at Petroda Mandala Service Station, Blessings Tchaka, said he had been on the queue for three days with the horse while the trailer was already loaded with cement bound for Balaka.
Another driver George Phiri said most diesel vehicles cannot be moving from one filling station to another to look for the product; hence, drivers are forced to spend days at one service station.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Transporters Association of Malawi general secretary Elliot Mussa said they have lost business as their vehicles are grounded at service stations.
On the other hand, Malawi Milk Producers Association national director Herbert Chagona said the shortage of fuel has crippled the movement of milk from collection centres to factories for processing.
“In the Central Region, the farmers have resorted to vending the milk instead of taking their milk to the collection centre after they were forced to throw away all the milk from the tanks as it was not collected. Last week alone, the Central Region lost close to 80 000 litres,” he said.
Chagona said if the diesel situation does not improve, the dairy value chain will be losing 200 000 litres of milk worth more than K80 million on a daily basis.
In a separate interview, Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer Daisy Kambalame said the business community is concerned about the state of supply of fuel and there is need for joint efforts to identify sustainable supply.
She said: “As an importing landlocked country, we rely on trucks to bring in inputs for production, ferrying our exports which are currently critical to generating forex and keeping the economy moving. If cargo is stuck in transit, it can compromise quality of the product and such delays may also affect confidence of our customers.”
Meanwhile, Economics Association of Malawi acting president Bertha Bangara Chikadza has urged the government to move beyond relying on development partners for foreign exchange and start planning for situations like these.
By Tuesday last week, the country had an equivalent of two days stock of petrol and half day for diesel. Malawi has been experiencing fuel stockouts in the past four years largely due to foreign exchange scarcity. The country has an annual import bill of $3 billion against $1 billion forex it generates.
