By Brenda Kayo:
The government has announced that it will start selling maize through Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) at K790 per kilogramme (kg).
This is equivalent to K39,500 per 50 kg bag.
According to Secretary for Agriculture Dickxie Kampani, the new price will become effective on Friday.
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Kampani said the maize price has been reduced to alleviate economic hardships and hunger that some Malawians were facing.
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He said this in a press statement which was released on Tuesday.
Kampani said 10,000 metric tonnes (mt) of maize would be distributed across all markets to ensure steady supply of maize.
“This distribution will prioritise hardest hit areas, mainly in the Southern Region and some lakeshore [areas], and later it [the initiative] will be expanded to other regions,” Kampani said.
However, agriculture policy advocate Leonard Chimwaza has expressed concern that the move may have minimal impact on price stabilisation and could even lead to increased prices across the country.
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Chimwaza argued that the released quantities were insufficient, such that private traders could start using the new price as a floor price, in the process driving up prices.
‘The news about new maize prices, as set by Admarc, is quite good on the survivability of the entity but too impinging on the part of resource poor Malawians.
“Looking at the price itself, private traders will use that [as] a floor price for maize grain, hence this will lead to the increase of prices across the country. The quantities that have been released are not enough, hence their [quantities’] impact on maize price stabilisation would be minimal,” he said.
While acknowledging the commercial fairness of the new price, Chimwaza noted that Admarc’s financial sustainability depended on improving its financial status.
Meanwhile, the government has announced that it has released 45,000mt of maize to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs to support those that are food insecure in the country.
