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Minister pledges to boost cooperatives

Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe says government is committed to supporting cooperatives and small and medium enterprises in value addition.

He said this on Tuesday in Karonga District where he visited Rukuru Rice Women Cooperative, a beneficiary of the Agricultural Commercialisation (Agcom) project, where he pledged to help cooperatives to produce for exportation.

Gwengwe (in white coat) samples
rice. | George Mponda, Mana

“We are importing more products than we are exporting and we need to reverse this trend for us to create wealth for our country through locally-made products,” said Gwengwe.

He said government will continue to introduce initiatives to expose cooperatives to the international market.

“We are in the process of constructing a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa market in Mchinji which will open doors for Malawian products to the international market,” said Gwengwe.

The minister then pledged to simplify modalities of cross-border trade and exports to boost Malawian businesses.

Rukuru Rice Women Cooperative chairperson Elizabeth Mwamukangama said their cooperative, which was established in  2019, produces quality and properly graded rice.

She said: “We got K38.6 million from Agcom and we spent it on a grader and an automated rice colour sorter.

“For a year now, we have been supplying rice to Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe and we have recently started supplying rice to Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga.”

Mwamukangama said from 2023 to 2024, the cooperative realised K154 million.

However, she bemoaned the flooding of fake kilombero rice products on the local market believed to be from neighbouring Tanzania.

Agcom national coordinator Ted Nakhumwa said their purpose is to commercialise farming since the majority of smaller-holder farmers in Malawi are subsistent.

Agcom has since disbursed $95 million (about K166 billion), reaching 265 productive cooperatives in various value chains

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