Mitc unveils K400bn market
The Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) says it has identified export markets for Malawian products worth about $547 million (about K397 billion).
In a statement made available to Business News, Mitc public relations manager Deliby Chimbalu said the markets are mostly for agricultural products such as soya beans, groundnuts, rice, beans, sunflower and poultry.
The markets include China ($141.7 million), Zambia ($11 million), Zimbabwe ($76.7 million), Tanzania ($510.6 million), South Africa ($100 million), Mozambique ($1 million) and Egypt ($200 million) while the Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) 2018 fetched $16 million in investment pledges.
She said there is still demand for some manufactured products like soya pieces, sunflower cake, plastic products, peanut butter, tea, coffee, cotton cake and beverages.
Said Chimbalu: “Last year, we rolled out an export promotion campaign where we organised several trade missions to different countries with an aim of identifying markets for our products.
“Some of the countries we visited include: Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt and China. We are happy that these missions have exposed our Malawian producers and manufacturers to market opportunities beyond the borders of Malawi”.
Meanwhile, Mitc is calling on all export ready companies to take advantage of the explored market opportunities.
Chancellor College associate professor of economics Levison Chiwaula urged Mitc to look at the production constraints that producers face and work to facilitate the requirements.
He said producers would want to sell internationally but they are constrained by a number of requirements hence advised Mitc to look at the production constraints that producers face and work to facilitate the requirements.
Said Chiwaula: “We need to jump on these opportunities because as a country, this is what we have always been looking for all these years. We need to adhere to standards for these export markets to accept our products.
“This will boost our foreign reserves because it will mean we will gain a lot through exporting in those markets and it will put us on a better position as a country. We cannot exhaust all these market opportunities using small and medium enterprises, but large enterprises should also get involved”.
