Legumes fetched K15.3bn in 2012
Legumes’ exports raked in K15.3 billion in the second half of 2012, ranking third after tobacco and uranium, figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) have shown.
The NSO trade brief for July to December 2012 indicates that groundnuts—not roasted or otherwise cooked—raked in K7.79 billion while other legumes raked in K7.5 billion in the period under review.
“Tobacco remains the major export product for Malawi. During the last half of 2012, tobacco contributed 54.7 percent to the total exports; uranium came second with 9.7 percent and was followed by groundnuts with 4.4 percent.
“Total merchandise exports registered an increase of 39 percent for the period of July to December 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. The total exports value for the period was around K178.6 billion while that of the same period in 2011 was around K128.8 billion,” reads the NSO brief in part.
Commenting on the performance of the legumes on Monday, National Working Group on Trade Policy chairperson Geoff Mkandawire said there is demand for legumes and, if managed well, could complement tobacco.
“Malawi must find markets for our legumes before we increase their production. The two must be matched; otherwise trade will not take place. Government departments are looking for markets, but they need to work harder to get these markets,” he said.
Government in the National Export Strategy (NES) has set three priorities which includes oil seed products—cooking oil, soaps, lubricants, paints, varnishes, meals and flours, bio-fuel, animal feed, fertiliser, snacks and confectionery derived from sunflower, groundnuts, soya and cotton.
The NES notes that the three prioritised export-oriented clusters—sugar cane, oil seeds and manufactures—have the potential to complement tobacco and drive exports through value addition in a manner that exports can maintain the upward pressure of imports.
To support the production of legumes, government has allocated K1.7 billion for the oil seeds in the 2013/14 budget.
The Presidential Initiative on Poverty and Hunger Reduction (PIPHR) last year distributed about 2 000 metric tonnes of soya to 100 000 farmers. The initiative expects to realise over 40 000 metric tonnes of soya this year.
PIPHR has partnered with the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) and Auction Holdings Exchange Commodity (AHCX) and has already started buying from markets.
The NSO trade brief indicates that between July and December 2012, Malawi’s trade deficit worsened regardless of an increase in exports.
NSO indicates that imports increased by 89 percent from K201.7 billion in the last half of 2011 to around K380.8 billion for the same period in 2012. Main imports during the period, were petroleum which accounted for 13.1 percent, followed by fertilisers at 8.2 percent and medicines at 5.3 percent.
Most of the imports originated from South Africa, China, Mozambique, India and United Arab Emirates ranked first, second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Imports from the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) amounted to K151.7 billion, seconded by the Far East, EU and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) came third and fourth with K67.0 billion, K43.3 billion and K26.0 billion respectively.
The statistical body notes that the last half of last year Malawi had a trade surplus of K7.1billion with North America.
However, during the period, the overall trade balance gap worsened from around K73 billion in 2011 to around K202.2 billion in 2012.
The gap worsened although there was an increase in the value of exports by 39 percent during the last half of 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. Thus, the increase in the value for imports by 89 percent for the same period caused the trade balance gap to widen.
