There is a fresh push by stakeholders for increased production of macadamia nuts and mangoes in Malawi to capitalise on growing export opportunities.
The move could significantly contribute to addressing the country’s trade deficit.
The call was made during an information sharing meeting held in Blantyre on Monday, organised by the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) in collaboration with the Malawi Value Chains (MVC) project.
MITC Director General Kruger Phiri said the transformative potential of the two value chains could match the country’s import value, hence do away with the yawning trade deficit gap.
He noted that in recent years, more Malawians had begun to cultivate macadamia, breaking the previous trend where the crop was predominantly grown by foreign investors.
“Over the years, macadamia was grown by a few estates. The land we have right now is 4 million hectares under agriculture. One percent of that is the estates, 99 percent are smallholder farmers. So, macadamia falls into that one percent. We are changing that.
“In the past three to four years, we have gained momentum whereby macadamia is being grown, not only by foreigners but even Malawians. All that is required is patience because investments in the crop begin yielding returns after seven years,” Phiri said.
The MITC chief also highlighted the commercial potential of mangoes, particularly in value-added processing, revealing that even overripe mangoes could be utilised in manufacturing products such as shoes.
MVC Team Leader William Mwanza said macadamia contributes about $30 million to export earnings, with projections indicating potential to more than double the figure in the coming years.
He added that mango exports are approaching $20 million, with similar growth expectations.
“A lot of it comes down to information. Making information on the different markets available to the private sector is crucial so that the private sector is able to access those particular markets.
“So far, we’ve reached about 200 mid-size farmers with our engagements. We’ve trained about 50 and we continue training them periodically through cohort training but also through season calendar training,” Mwanza said.
The MVC project is funded by the United Kingdom with an aim of increasing exports’ value.
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