Mutharika adamant on maize export ban
President Peter Mutharika said his government will not lift a ban on maize exports unless all Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) in the country are filled up.
Speaking when he presided over the official opening of this year’s 14th National Agriculture Fair at Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds in Blantyre, Mutharika said his government instituted a ban on maize export to prevent what happened in 2002 where government sold all maize to Kenya and the nation ended up in a hunger crisis the following year.
Said Mutharika: “Our plan is to fill up all our national silos and then we will be able to sell the excess, like I have always been saying, as long as I am president in this country no one will die of hunger.”
Mutharika hailed donor partners such as the USaid for partnering with local companies in training and empowering farmers.
This he said has granted safe keeping of farm produce by smallholder farmers rather than selling them to unscrupulous traders.
Provisions in the Control of Goods Act and the special Crops Act give powers to the responsible minister to restrict tradability of special crops of which maize being Malawi’s staple grain is in the group.
But in his remarks at the opening of the fair, Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) president Karl Chokotho called for the removal of such legal provisions saying such powers would be relevant where government was able to buy the commodities at export parity prices.
On May 19, the ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development announced that maize exports will only be allowed after the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) has purchased enough maize to satisfy the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) requirement.
Chokotho who described this year as exceptionally unfortunate following a drastic drop in prices of agricultural produce, also called on government to discuss with the Indian government to remove abrupt import restrictions on pigeon peas which has negatively affected the market.
The government of India imposed import restriction on pigeon peas to support domestic prices.
He said according to International Trade Centre statistics, in 2016 Malawi in total exported goods worth 41 million dollars. However during the same year, Malawi imported goods worth 171 million Dollars, mostly in the form of manufactured goods.
“We therefore do not expect the Indian government to reduce the amount of pulses it imports from us in order to widen the trade deficit further against Malawi.
We expect the Malawi government to take up the matter with Indian authorities and ensure that we do not end up as losers as the impact will fall heavily especially on poor rural farmers. The bigger the market the better the prices for our pigeon peas,” he said.
According to Chokotho, prices for pigeon peas have dropped to as low as “K40 per kilogram from last year’s K600 per kilogram while maize prices range from K50 to K100 per kilogram”.
“The consequences have been catastrophic as farmers have completely lost out to vendors or middlemen, who have mopped out almost all the maize they grew.
This has happened when just across the border in Mbeya, Tanzania, maize has been selling at double the Malawi official minimum price and three times as much in Dar es Salaam. Zimbabwe and Zambia have also taken advantage of the maize shortage in East Africa and exporting their surplus there,” he said.
During the event, Mutharika awarded Group Village headman Jumbe as best farmer, Monsanto Malawi as best input supplier and the department of agriculture research services as best service provider.
The theme for the 4-day fair is ‘unleashing full Agriculture Potential: role of markets.
