Untapped export potential costs Malawi K246bn a year

Malawi is yet to exploit its untapped export potential across diverse products, estimated at $333.5 million (K246 billion), a setback contributing to the country’s worsening trade performance, International Trade Centre (ITC) has said.

According to ITC March 2018 paper titled Exploring Malawi’s Export Potential, traditional exports alone, including raw sugar cane, black tea and bird eggs, could bring in $134.1 million (about K98 billion) in additional export revenue.

ITC observes that regional integration is a crucial factor to realise the country’s potential, as almost 40 percent of its export potential lies with neighbouring countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).

The products with the greatest untapped potential include tea, nuts, meat products, sugar, oilseeds, pulses and wood products.

“As a least developed country, Malawi recognises the importance of investing in policies and processes to use trade as a tool for inclusive growth.

“Underlying this approach is a strategy to strengthen its export sectors and broaden the scope of goods and services produced given the country’s traditionally strong dependence on a narrow set of revenue-generating exports,” said ITC executive director Arancha González in a statement.

In an interview last week, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism principal trade officer (technical) Diamond Chikhasu said while exporters are able to benefit from preferential market access, the challenge has been inadequate productive capacity to take full advantage of these opportunities by producing goods and services of the right quantity and quality. n