Gwengwe shames the likes of tax evasion fugitive More

The year 2017 will probably go down in history as one of the worst for poor pigeon peas (nandolo) farmers from Phalombe, Mulanje, Thyolo, Blantyre and other parts of Malawi.

It was the year that India—the world’s biggest importer of the lentils—capped pigeon peas imports at 200 000 tonnes from 703 540 tonnes it imported in 2016.

That was an import drop of more than 70 percent, sending shock waves across the globe.

While the Indian government understandably wanted to support local prices following a 60 percent drop in prices of the regume owing to record production, countries such as Myanmar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi that depend on India as their main market for nandolo, were hit hard.

The nandolo price in Malawi dropped by hundreds of percentages to as low as K50 per kilogramme.

For three years, the cries of poor Malawian farmers reverberated across the world as they watched all their hard work go up in flames.

But as the poor Malawians wept, one Chandra Shekhar More—whom the Warm Heart of Africa as Malawi is fondly called had welcomed with open arms to operate an edible oil extraction plant—was busy lobbying the Indian government to completely stop imports of nandolo from Malawi to India and close off lines of credit to this country because he did not want to be held accountable for alleged crimes he committed while in Malawi.

This is the man who was arrested in 2015 on tax evasion charges. The Malawi Revenue Authority expects him to pay up and the case is still active.

Just in December last year, he was accused of trying to bribe leaders of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition and the Minister of Homeland Security with K60 million to help him lobby against his deportation. The case is still with the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

That is why today, I celebrate Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe for bringing back the nandolo exports that will go a long way to support the poor farmers and the national economy in general.

In case you missed it, this week Gwengwe signed on behalf of the Malawi Government a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the annual exportation of 50 000 metric tonnes (MT) of pigeon peas—also known as arhar or tur in India—to that country.

The exports will be undertaken through private trade starting from 2021/22 financial year to the 2025/26 financial year.

The other good news is that the MoU provides for an annual review of the tonnage that if Malawi performs well, there is opportunity to increase the amounts of merchandise to ship to India.

“The MoU resonates well with the MW2063 development agenda that has prioritised pillars of industrialisation, agriculture productivity and commercialisation,” said Gwengwe.

On his part, Indian High Commissioner Shri Gopalakrishnan said the MoU will expand India-Malawi partnership as the objective of the agreement is to promote trade of pigeon peas between the two countries.

He said: “The trade of pigeon peas through this MoU will not only meet the domestic requirement of India, but also find ready and reliable market for Malawi. This will also help Malawi reduce the gap in the balance of trade between the two countries. On the other hand, India has a massive appetite for energy, minerals and food for its large population.”

What all this means is that incomes of pigeon peas farmers in Malawi will rise, which in turn will improve their standards of living, get them out of the poverty trap and invest in the future of their children.

The private companies who will be licensed to export will expand their revenue, hire more people to work, contribute more to the tax kitty and bring in the much needed foreign currency to help support strategic imports such as fuel and fertiliser to keep the agriculture-dependent Malawi economy on the roll.

So, this is to you Sosten Gwengwe for the good job.