Date Of Article: 11/22/2002
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Problems dog maize imports
By: Denis Mzembe
The National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) may not meet the targeted 370,000 metric tonnes of maize imports by December because most companies it contracted have delivered below projections. Nation has established that only 156,139 metric tonnes have been delivered to the NFRA out of the 296,000 metric tonnes of maize expected from the 33 companies by October 24. The maize is part of government’s efforts to avert the looming food crisis. NFRA general manager Patrick Makina said in an interview earlier in the week that some contracts have been cancelled and will be awarded to different companies with the capacity to deliver. “Some companies have delivered nothing. They can’t source the maize and have no capacity,” said Makina. He said some contractors will be replaced because their letters of credit have expired. Government earlier indicated that it would only import 250,000 metric tonnes of maize from South Africa, the United States of America and Brazil and not 370,000 metric tonnes as tendered by the NFRA. But Makina explained that they deliberately increased the tonnage “to hedge against non-performance” as some companies would have ended up either under-delivering or not delivering anything at all. “At the end of the day we would still end up with anything between 240,000 to 250,000 metric tonnes of maize,” Makina said. Proprietor of GWC General Dealers, Grace Mhango, one of the suppliers, said this week authorities ordered that local suppliers should not get letters of credit but find their own money, a factor which might have contributed to the failure by some companies to fulfil contracts. A highly placed European Union official recently indicated in an interview that the union doubts the claim by local companies that the maize which they are supplying to the NFRA at about K25 per kilogramme, is really imported. Some of the companies selling to the NFRA bought maize from the strategic grain reserves between 2001 and 2002, according to the Anti Corruption Bureau. “The Bureau is aware that some companies that bought maize from the strategic grain reserves are now also supplying maize to NFRA. We are yet to establish whether some of the maize being supplied is the same maize that was procured earlier from NFRA,” former ACB Chief Gilton Chiwaula said recently. But Finance Minister Friday Jumbe said in an interview: “Although some Malawians are selling maize to the NFRA, I believe that this is largely coming from foreign sources such as Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. The shortage in Malawi is real.” He also doubted the possibility of some traders selling back maize to the NFRA “because we went through a very lean period between December and March this year and all saleable stocks should have been sold that time. The selling prices were very attractive to traders”. Meanwhile, the ACB is investigating reports that some companies which bought maize from the NFRA are currently supplying maize to the same institution.
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