Regulations to enforce Buy Malawi Strategy

 Ministry of Trade has developed regulations for the Buy Malawi Strategy to compel retailers to stock a certain percentage of locally produced products.

The ministry says the regulations are expected to be launched during the first quarter of this year.

But Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito in an interview on Tuesday faulted the introduction of controls in a liberalised market environment.

The ministry’s director of trade Charity Musonzo said in an interview on Tuesday that the regulations follow the continued reluctance by some retailers to stock locally produced products despite being of high quality.

She said apart from compelling retailers to stock the products, the regulations will also guide them to put the products on prominent shelves for easy identification by consumers.

Musonzo said: “We want to enforce the Buy Malawi we are not able to force someone to implement provisions of the strategy.

“Without the legal provisions, we could not do much, but once the regulations are in place, we will implement the provisions contained in the strategy.”

But Kapito has faulted the move, saying government cannot liberalise the market and at the same time control what should be sold and bought.

He said the adoption of the liberalised market system, which removed direct government grip of controls on the market, keeps hurting consumers because they are left alone to deal with market forces.

Kapito said the ministry was supposed to facilitate the adoption of modern technology that enhances production of high-quality products but sold at affordable price.

He said: “Pricing and quality are key for a consumers on the market,.

“Even if you force the products to sellers and buyers, but if the quality is bad a consumer will still opt for a product produced elsewhere because they want quality that matches the price.”

He said since government’s interventions were removed from the market the consumer is left with two key issues to manage, price and quality.

Kapito said: “These two [price and quality] influence how the consumer conducts himself. I don’t believe the Buy Malawi campaign is a winning strategy at a time government has withdrawn its market responsibilities.

In an earlier interview, Ministry of Industry director of small and medium enterprises and registrar of cooperative societies Wiskies Nkombezi argued that for a consumer to make a decision to buy a product, pricing and quality are primary issues.

The Buy Malawi Strategy was launched in March 2016 to build competitiveness of enterprises to grow the economy and improve welfare of all Malawians