China, Malawi trade now at $300m
Chinese Ambassador to Malawi Pan Hejun says the trade volume between Malawi and China jumped to $300 million (K103 billion) in 2012 from $42.82 million (K14.7 billion) in 2007.
Pan said this Friday during the business launch of the Auction Holdings Commodity Exchange (AHCX) in Lilongwe.
He said China has further opened markets to Malawi by offering zero-tariff treatment to 95 percent of the Malawian commodities.
Said Pan: “As a close friend and partner of Malawi, China is more willing to provide its assistance in the field of agriculture. Under the framework of south-south cooperation, a number of Chinese agricultural experts have been working with Malawian people to promote agricultural production. With the launch of the AHCX, we have reason to believe that more Chinese investors and trading companies will find it easy to do business with their Malawian counterparts.”
He said as the largest and most populous developing country, China has been attaching great importance to agriculture with painstaking efforts in research and agricultural skills and technology.
“As a country, we made major breakthroughs in agriculture through research and we have managed to provide sufficient food for more than 1.3 billion people. With a strong agriculture, we realised all round development and changed from one of the poorest countries to the second largest economy around the globe,” said Pan.
Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) chief executive officer Evans Matabwa said the opening of the AHCX will give Malawian farmers opportunity to sell their produce at competitive prices because they will also be involved in the whole process of pricing.
“Time has come for Malawian farmers to smile because now they will have the powers to decide at how much they want to sell their produce. Farmers in the country were not benefitting much because some traders want to buy produce at low prices so that they make huge profits at the expense of the farmer,” he said.
Minister of Industry and Trade Sosten Gwengwe hailed AHLs for opening the commodity exchange markets, saying it will bring competition in the agriculture sector.
“This is a very welcome development because at the end of the days farmers will be the greatest winners,” he said.
