State-owned grain trader, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc), is selling Malawians maize labelled ‘not for sale’, a development that is creating confusion among buyers as to whether they should be paying for it or not.
Principal Secretary (PS) for Agriculture Dixie Kampani, another PS for Agriculture Medrina Muloza Banda and Admarc Chief Executive Officer Dan Makata confirmed the development when they appeared before members of the Parliamentary Government Assurances Committee last week.
The officials were responding to queries from Blantyre City South legislator Noel Lipipa and Mulanje West lawmaker Yusuf Nthenda.
Nthenda said community members do not understand why Admarc is demanding payment for the “not-for-sale maize”.
“On the ‘not-for-sale’ [tag] on the bags of maize, chair we are made to answer questions on behalf of Admarc because when the 15 metric tonnes arrived at Namulenga, people phoned and said: ‘Are we supposed to pay for this maize?’
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“I said why; why shouldn’t you pay? They said the bags are written ‘not for sale’. I said ‘if it is written not for sale, then government is trying to sell relief maize’. That’s the answer that I had,” Nthenda said.
According to Makata, Admarc is selling the 12,640 metric tonnes (mt) of maize which the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) bought.
He said Admarc has not bought maize this year because it was undergoing restructuring and that the money for buying the grain was channelled to NFRA.
On her part, Muloza Banda said what she noted is that NRFA puts its maize in bags written ‘not for sale’.
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“I don’t know why they do that. But last time I visited NRFA, all the bags were reading ‘not for sale’. But this maize under SGR [Strategic Grain Reserves] goes to disaster and only Admarc. So, this means it’s not for sale to vendors,” Muloza Banda said.
Kampani admitted that it is, indeed, confusing to be sold something that is written ‘not for sale’.
He said all the maize that is under SGR goes out through Admarc and relief response and that, for the maize that is there now, most of it is going out through disaster support.
According to Kampani, only maize that is earmarked for humanitarian response is supposed to be put in bags labelled ‘not for sale’, because it is, indeed, not for sale.
He said the ministry will follow up on that to see how best the problem can be sorted out.
Currently, Admarc is rationing the maize, allowing buyers to buy a maximum of 25 kilogrammes (kg) per person at K600 per kg.
