High maize prices haunt Malawians

Barefoot and dressed in a torn khaki blouse and a blue skirt, Esnart Mtimaukanena slowly approaches a maize vendor at Chimsewu Trading Centre in Ndirande Township, Blantyre.

She waits at a distance for the crowd to clear off before making her purchase.

Seemingly tired from a Thursday morning mild sun, Mtimaukanena starts negotiating with the vendor.

In less than three minutes of the negotiations, she slips her right hand into her bra and fishes out K1 000 note and gives it to the vendor.

The vendor sells her a kilogramme (kg) of the staple at a discount price of K1 000, down from K1 200 per kg.

Her face lightens up as she walks away with a kg of maize, wrapped in a black plastic pack.

“This will carry us through the next three days, me and my two-year-old daughter,” she says.

According to Mtimaukanena, she will use the K200, which is not enough, to plead for another discount at the maize mill.

The single mother makes a living by mining sand along Nasolo River.

“On a good day, I earn roughly K2 000 and I normally use it to buy maize,” she says.

For Mtimaukanena to purchase a 50 kg bag, she has to cough at least K60 000.

This is new the maize price on the local market, up from K45 000 as of December 2023.

Nation on Sunday’s findings, corroborated by the Centre for Social Concern, show that the lowest price for a 50kg bag of maize on the market is K50 000.

This is equivalent to a government minimum wage of K50 000, meaning those earning below it cannot afford a bag of maize.

And what worries Edna Nthenda from Chikwawa’s Traditional Authority Maseya is that the prices may continue rising.

“I fear that the prices will continue rising to the point that many will not afford to purchase maize,” she says.

Felix Chimwaza from Lilongwe’s Mitundu area echoed similar fears. In his area, a 50kg bag of maize is selling at K55 000.

He said: “With the continuous rise in maize prices, I fear a 50 kg bag will soon reach K70 000 and we will not afford it.”

Nation on Sunday established that the maize prices have increased in the Eastern Region districts of Zomba and Machinga, bringing frustrations among the citizenry.

Even in the North, particularly Mzuzu City and Rumphi District, many people interviewed expressed their deep frustrations.

Rosario Mzumara from Rumphi said she struggles to have a proper meal due to high maize prices while Matteus Gondwe feared the prices will skyrocket to unprecedented levels by March.

Maize prices have recently been on a steady increase and this has been a major contributing factor to a continuous rise in inflation which is currently at 33.1 percent, which is the highest since 2013.

The current maize prices are the highest when compared to the preceding five years from 2023, according to a fresh assessment by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) and confirmed by the Centre for Social Concern.

This is depressing news considering that an estimated 4.4 million people are expected

 to face hunger in the 2023/24 consumption period.

This also comes at a time when reports show that combined effects of El Nino are anticipated to cost the country a whooping K337 billion in maize production loss.

“By the end of November 2023, the prices of the maize staple were trending at a range of 30 to 80 percent above last year [2022] and 170 to 250 percent above the five-year average in Fewsnet-monitored markets,” reads in part the assessment.

According to the assessment, while some month-on-month maize price stability was recorded between October and November 2023, the situation is a temporary relief driven by the start of humanitarian assistance and the release of more stock on the market by farmers.

The assessment indicates that maize prices will continue to be on the rise owing to the 44 percent devaluation of the Malawi kwacha compounded by seasonal increases, especially as Malawi has entered the peak lean season between December 2023 and March 2024.

Such instances have the potential to derail the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number two which aims at ending hunger and ensuring that everybody has easy access to basic, safe and nutritious foods by 2030.

Centre for Social Concern project officer Kondwani Hara said in a separate interview that the significance of maize in the lives of Malawians cannot be overstated.

“It is crucial to recognise that a significant portion of the population does not earn anywhere near close to the K50 000 minimum wage, the very amount required to purchase a 50 kg bag of maize,” he said.

Earlier, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said affordable maize through price stabilisation intervention would be offered to the public by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc).

The State produce trader is rationing maize sales to 25 kg per single buyer in some areas. But in some scenarios, vendors have been making killing by purchasing Admarc maize bulks and resell it to people