Malawi maize prices jumped up by about four percent in October to an average of about K118 per kilogramme, data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has shown.
The data, which is posted on the ministry’s website and is updated monthly, further indicates that from April—the harvest month for maize—to October the price of the staple has increased by 38 percent from K85.23 per kilogramme.
The rise in the price of the grain, which is a staple to many Malawians, points to more difficulties in accessing food, more hardships to the vulnerable and puts pressure on the country’s inflation which comprises 50.2 percent food and non-alcoholics.
Compared to last year’s prices, the staple has almost doubled. Last year in October, the staple grain was selling at K58.29, rising approximately by 100 percent to the current price.
Experts have, however, attributed the rise in the price of the grain as seasonal and have so far called upon authorities and consumers to smoothen the cyclical trend of the prices.
Recently, the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) National Coordinator, Tamani Nkhono-Mvula said the country must deal with post harvest losses and diversify to other food crops as one way of handling the seasonal lean period.
He encouraged Malawians to diversify to other food crops such as cassava whose harvest can be delayed. Nkhono-Mvula also said with plenty water available in the country, irrigation farming would help make the country food secure.
The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) projected that the price of the staple will rise by 20 percent by December 2013 and 60 percent by March 2014 from the September 2013 average prices.
The report noted that the current drivers of high maize prices include lingering effects of last year’s localised production shocks, macro-economic instability and high production costs associated with the current crop being transferred to consumers, limited supplies, and high demand due to low production in some areas.
The report noted that low national household stocks may also be contributing to higher than normal prices as the country moves into the traditional lean period.
Fewsnet also notes that the steady depreciation of the kwacha which has an impact on the maize prices indirectly is expected to continue until March 2014, when the next tobacco sales season is expected to start.
