Government through the Ministry of Industry and Trade has suspended import license requirements on maize flour effective immediately.
The suspension means that all importers of maize flour are now not required to obtain a license to import maize flour into the county.
A statement signed by the ministry’s spokesperson Cliff Chiunda released on Wednesday says the suspension will remain effective until May 31, 2016 and is meant to ease the flow of maize flour into the country.
Government says the action is expected to facilitate the free flow of maize flour into Malawi in view of the current food situation.
The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that more than 2.8 million Malawians will face hunger this year in the worst food crisis to hit Malawi in a decade.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has since advised all border agencies to take note of the directive and implement it accordingly.
The development comes at a time when the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) depots continue to remain empty, despite the corporation assuring Malawians that it has plenty of maize in stock.
Locally, maize prices continue to go up with latest prices observed in Blantyre showing that a kilogramme of maize is being sold at K300.
This means consumers have to part ways with K15,000 to buy a 50 kilogramme bag of maize
