The 21-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has said Malawi fails to satisfy the global market because production of goods is not usually linked to market research.
The sentiments by Comesa Business Council president James Chimwaza follow data from National Statistical Office showing that Malawi’s cumulative trade balance worsened by 22.3 percent in eight months to August this year to hit $1.84 billion (about K3.2 trillion) from $1.5 billion (about K2.6 trillion) during the same period last year.
In an interview on Tuesday, he attributed Malawi’s continued worsening trade gap to various factors, including lack of market targeted production and aggregation at regional level to satisfy global markets.
Said Chimwaza: “If you compare the Southern African Development Community and other regions, most countries, including Malawi, have not registered remarkable strides on improving capacity to produce products that are relevant for competitive exports.
“This is because our production is not linked to market research. We usually produce and search for markets later, which is not the way it supposed to be.”
He said there is need for countries in the Comesa trade bloc to aggregate their production and exports collectively to meet the demand and standards that global markets set.
Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and National Statistical Office (NSO) data show that during the review period, imports grew by 14 percent from $2 billion (about K3.5 trillion) to $2.3 billion (about K4 trillion) while exports declined by 7.1 percent to $492.4 million (about K862 billion) from $527.7 million (about K924 billion).
This, therefore, means with four months remaining for the calendar year, the exports to imports ratio worsened to 1:4.7 from 1:3.8 in the corresponding period last year and well above the previous annual ratio of 1:3.
This also means that although Malawi has initiatives such as National Export Strategy (NES II), which targets to boost the share of exports in the gross domestic product to 20 percent by 2026 in line with the Malawi 2063, the made in Malawi products are not making it to foreign markets.
The data further indicate that in August 2025, monthly trade balance was minus $226 million (about K396.7 billion) compared to minus $130 million (about K227.6 billion) in August 2024 as exports dropped while imports surged.
“The total exports for August 2025 amounted to $111.7 million, showing a 39.3 percent decline compared to $183.9 million in August 2024. In contrast, total imports increased from $313.9 million in August 2024 to $338 million in August 2025,” reads part of NSO International Merchandise Trade Statistics report for August.
Meanwhile, according to RBM Financial and Economic Review for second quarter of 2025, the rise in imports was largely due to increased purchases of fuel, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers iron and steel and cereals.
On the other hand, out of the $492 million exports recorded so far, tobacco dominated at $288.4 million, representing 60 percent, a situation which means the economy’s export base is not yet diversified from tobacco.
The trend has since intensified calls to diversify the country’s export base and invest in high-value sectors, according to economists.
Mwapata Institute research fellow Christone Nyondo said: “We must diversify our export base into less volatile, higher-value crops like macadamia and avocado while also investing in agro-processing and non-agricultural sectors such as tourism and information and communications technology.”
The trade gap is being experienced at a time the Malawi Government is implementing the National Export Strategy (NES II) launched three years ago to increase exports of local goods and services to the regional and global marketplace, improve export readiness and international competitiveness of the country’s industries, enterprises and products.
Ministry of Trade and Industry Principal Secretary Christina Zakeyo said trade balance issues are affected by many factors outside its trade facilitation role.
She applauded the ministry for successfully reducing the time and costs of doing business for cross-border traders.
“The ministry believes that trade facilitation is a game-changer and a strong contributor to the reduction of trade costs and improved efficiency and hence trade flows,” said Zakeyo.
NSO data shows that annually, Malawi exports goods valued at roughly $1 billion (about K1.7 trillion) against imports at $3 billion (K5.2 trillion), creating a $2 billion (about K3.5 trillion) negative trade balance.
