Local transporters in Malawi have accused the government of prioritizing foreign hauliers in the ongoing 200,000-metric-tonne Zambia maize procurement deal, Nyasa Times reports. Transporters Association of Malawi director Frank Banda stated that local operators have hauled only 15,000 metric tonnes out of their 100,000-tonne quota and have not been paid since December. Banda noted that local transporters are financially drained as they are forced to source US dollars on the black market to cover cross-border toll fees and fuel, while foreign transporters are allegedly being paid directly in foreign currency.
Meanwhile, the National Food Reserve Agency disclosed during a Parliamentary Cluster Committee on Agriculture meeting on Thursday that the country faces a 600,000-metric-tonne maize shortfall, according to a broadcast by AM TV Malawi. The national production was reported at 2.9 million metric tonnes against a requirement of 3.5 million metric tonnes. The agency indicated that following drawdowns for humanitarian food assistance and price stabilization efforts by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation, the strategic grain reserve is projected to have a closing stock of just 82,000 metric tonnes.
In a separate development, the government has slashed the capital allocation for the Greenbelt Authority by 87.6 percent in the 2026 to 2027 draft budget, prompting questions about the future of the national commercial irrigation program. According to Nyasa Times, capital grants for the authority have dropped from a revised K56.3 billion in the previous year to just K7 billion. The significant reduction in capital financing occurs during ongoing corruption investigations regarding the alleged misappropriation of advance payments for irrigation works.