Illegal maize exports rife

Increasing cases of maize smuggling have prompted the  Malawi Police Service to form a special patrol team led by Deputy Inspector General  (DIG)Casper Chalera to corner perpetrators.

National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said in an interview yesterday the Police have constituted the special operation to bring sanity and curb the malpractice which is said to be rife in Karonga and Chitipa border areas.

He said: “We have taken some action to stop this. In Chitipa, a special operation is being led by the DIG with the Police Mobile Service team from Ipyana in Karonga and other officers from the regional office. That is how serious we are in dealing with the vice.

“The checks are also being conducted along all other border districts in the country. You know there is an export ban and as police we are committed to ensuring that the ban is enforced.”

Kalaya said the teams have been in Chitipa and Karonga for weeks and appealed to the public to cooperate by alerting Police everytime they see truckloads of maize.

Maize exports remain banned in the country, according to Minister of Trade and Industry Mark Katsonga Phiri.

In an interview yesterday, the minister said smuggling of agricultural produce has worsened in the country, adding that his ministry is developing strategies on how to end the vice.

Said Katsonga Phiri: “We have not issued any export licences and those exporting are smuggling the commodity.

“We are pushing aggressively that we should have the strategies in place as quickly as possible because we are losing out big time. Smuggling of maize, pigeon peas and beans is very unfortunate and we really need to stop this.”

Revelations of increasing cases of smuggling in Chitipa came to the fore last month when Police arrested three ward councillors, namely Chitipa District Council chairperson Thomson Kapesa, Saidi Lwanja of Zambwe Ward and Wedson Sinkhonde of Yamba Ward for allegedly aiding people to smuggle maize through a check-point at Illomba Border Post.

But in an interview, Kapesa said the checkpoint was only meant to collect taxes on vehicles and has now moved to Mwamkumbwa, about 10 kilometres from the border. He said each day, vehicles carrying maize, among others, trek to Tanzania.

He said: “Each day, you see trucks carrying maize, usipa, but also maize husks to Tanzania. We cannot do anything because we have no mandate to start questionning them and this is also because we do not have a cordial relationship with the law enforcers.

“Songwe River is almost dried up, so it is easy to smuggle goods using the river. Some people use the river to get maize to Tanzania. The maize that goes to Tanzania is not from Chitipa, it comes from far away areas and you wonder why such people pass through all roadblocks without being stopped.”

The illegal exports come at a time Malawi is facing a food shortage with about 3.8 million people in need of relief food.

Meanwhile, Grain Traders Association of Malawi president Grace Mhango said in an interview the smuggling is worsened by the fact that people are not declaring the maize stocks they have.

She said: “We have been asking our members about what they have, but no one is declaring that. There is no proper information. Private players and government need to be transparent on this.

“We have a huge local market, so why sell the maize outside Malawi? For instance in Lilongwe, a kilogramme was K365 [K18 250 per 50kg], that is much more than what they can get if they export the grain.”

A World Food Programme Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa report said maize supplies in southern Africa are 10 percent below 2021/22 marketing year with largest annual reductions in harvest from the main producers and exporters.

“The bulk of maize imports into Eastern Africa will, therefore, likely be sourced from South Africa, Malawi and Zambia given they have large exportable maize surpluses in the current marketing year. These source markets are also favourable given lower maize grain parity price levels,” reads the report.

Malawian taxpayers are expected to foot a whopping K76 billion food bill to feed 3.8 million food insecure people in the next five months.