Early in June this year, the Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) had announced that it will open its markets to buy farmer’s produce, as per usual during the harvest season of the year. However, admarc has not opened its doors yet, leaving farmers settling for vendors that are offering low prices.

Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Alfred Kapichira Banda, said that the stalled opening of the admarc market leaves unscrupulous traders to exploit the situation to their advantage. On the other hand, it may seem that admarc is dealing with internal issues, as in early May this year, employees were on a countrywide strike. The employers demanded a salary restructuring agreement which was scheduled to start in March this year, to be implemented. The grievance came along with urging management to remit about K1.8 billion in pension fund arrears.

Treasury spokesperson Davis Sado, told The Nation newspaper that money for buying maize is factored into the K511.2 billion three-months provisional budget and will be disbursed soon. Hopefully farmers will have not given up entirely and sold all of their commodities by then.