Rethinking Malawi’s potential to export fresh foods

Malawi President Joyce Banda’s deal she has struck with Equatorial Guinea to enable Malawi to export fresh foods has, once again, raised ‘old’ questions regarding the country’s readiness to venture into that arrangement.

Brimming with confidence, Banda told a news conference in Blantyre on Saturday that the foods under the trade deal include cabbages, tomatoes, fresh beans and soya beans.

The move, she noted, is a step towards the country’s effort in seeking alternative crops that can competitively bring the much-sought after foreign exchange.

But Banda is well aware that Malawi has to solve teething logistical and capacity problems, among many other impediments, for Malawi to fully benefit from the trade deal.

“Once they say we will be coming every week to buy the foods, do we have the capacity to supply them?” queried the President, also cognizant of the fact that Malawi does not have a direct flight to Equatorial Guinea to carry the country’s perishables.

While commending the trade deal as a positive development, in view of Malawi’s conducive environment such as good soils and weather for agricultural produce, Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Felix Jumbe is worried that farmers are not empowered to produce more.

“Already, farmers are facing problems to supply fruits and vegetables to Shoprite. This is the shortest market, but we can’t supply constantly,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Last year, the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (Nasme) became one of the major suppliers of fresh foods to Shoprite, an international retail supermarket.

The export market

But this done deal from Equatorial Guinea could be a tall order for Malawi, according to Jumbe. The country will have to grapple with transportation costs because there is no direct flight from Malawi to West Africa.

The local farmers are also incapacitated to meet the demand for the export market.

“There are also issues to do with infrastructure such as cooling facilities which the country does not have. We also have to be compliant to international standards of food handling and our Malawi Bureau of Standards does not have the capacity to make those certifications,” explained Jumbe.

Malawian farmers still lack the capacity to organise themselves for the purposes of producing for the export market, let alone the internal market.

“We are not yet there, but it is a good idea to invest in,” said Jumbe.

Business consultant, Henry Kachaje, who is also managing director of Business Consult Africa (BCA) doubted whether the trade deal could be practical from a technical point of view.

He also raises the issue of Malawi not having a direct flight to West Africa, which requires one to pass through Paris, France.

Kachaje argued that unless there are arrangements for a direct flight to Equatorial Guinea, that deal is a nonstarter largely because of cost implications.

“We can’t send [our perishables] by truck or ship. They must be sent by air. At the moment, we don’t have a cargo plane for that purpose. Logistical issues have to be dealt with for the country to benefit,” he said, stressing that need for Malawi to have cold rooms right at the airports where these perishables could be stored ready for export.

One-stop trade centre

Kachaje reflected on the idea mooted by the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc), a merge of Malawi Investment Promotion Agency (Mipa) and Malawi Export Promotion Agency (Mepc) two years ago.

The one-stop trade centre conducted a study on the potential of exporting fresh vegetables to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Not much has been done to fully utilise this potential, despite Malawi having flights to Dubai.

Some years back, Malawi used to export flowers to the European market, and perhaps lessons could be learnt on how the country achieved that.

Then, Malawi used to have direct flights of British Airways and KLM, a flag carrier airline from the Netherlands, from Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe to Europe. Now that is no longer the case.

Just like Jumbe who said local farmers are not empowered to produce more, Kachaje also wondered whether the farmers have the capacity to produce vegetables on a large scale.

More pertinently, Kachaje also asks who will be responsible for consolidating the produce and packaging them.

He cited places where most of the vegetables are produced such as Lizulu and Jenda that they do not have storage facilities resulting in more than 50 percent of fruits and vegetables being thrown away.

But Banda said despite the many challenges, it is time for Malawi to start mobilising horticulture farmers all over the country who will be supplied with quality seeds to produce quality foods to avoid losing the already found market.

“We should now start visiting those tomato farmers at Jenda and other areas encouraging them to start producing quality agricultural products,” she said.

Malawi has to move fast to resolve the obstacles because there are countries such as South Africa, that present a competitive alternative.

There is also need to establish an organised centre where these produce will be consolidated before being exported.

Of late, there have been concerns that Malawi is importing fruits and vegetables that could be grown locally, a clear indication of a lack of confidence in locally produced foods.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade noted that they are actively monitoring the market for imported fruits and vegetables before implementing necessary measures to deal with it.

Checking the importation of fruits and vegetables could help the country to save foreign currency to be used to buy other essential imports such as pharmaceuticals, farm inputs and fuel.