Firm sits on $600m pork export market
A Lilongwe-based agricultural enterprise, Smaac, says Malawi has potential to export pork and pork products valued at $600 million (about K1 trillion) per year.
But the firm’s managing director Sam Magombo said in an interview on Monday that the major setback is lack of proper value chain for professional pig production that meets the required standards for processing for the high-end market.
According to the United States-based National Centre for Biotechnology, Malawi has one of the largest pig population density in Africa.
Said Magombo: “Despite having more pigs in Malawi, we still lag behind in value-addition and most of the pigs are not rared professionally.”
On the local market, pork sells at between K6 000 and K7 000 per kilogramme (kg) yet imported pork products such as bacon and pork chops sell at as high as K44 000 per kg.
“There is a huge export market of between $150 million [about K262 billion] and $600 million if we put all things in place to satisfy the available market,” said Magombo.
However, the firm, which has invested K1.5 billion in processing factory for pork products in Lilongwe, has export contracts worth $350 000 (K612 million) a month.
Meanwhile, Smaac’s venture has attracted a lot of interest from the financial sector as it benefited from the World Bank-funded Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship Scaling (Fines) project being implemented by the Reserve Bank of Malawi to provide low-interest loans through commercial banks.
Smaac accessed K450 million from NBM Development Bank to partly finance the pork processing factory and upscale the pig farm facilities.
FiNeS project manager Ralph Tseka said in an interview on Monday that Smaac accessed the largest loan under the project because of its export potential which aligns with the Malawi Government’s agriculture, tourism and mining (ATM) strategy.
He said: “The initial objective of the project was to sustain businesses that were struggling during the Covid-19 crisis by giving the capital boost.
“We achieved that, but moving forward we need to support more businesses that are into production, import substitution and exports.”
Smaac has already started exporting piglets to Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania and also trains farmers from those countries as well as Uganda.
Malawi Union of Small and Medium Enterprises secretary Christopher Banda said in an interview yesterday that the country is sitting on numerous opportunities that can transform the agriculture sector, but there is lack of entrepreneurial culture among Malawians to take the available opportunities.
