Vice President of the Republic of Malawi, Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, has hailed local farmers in Chitipa for engaging in cooking oil manufacturing when the country is facing scarcity and high prices of the commodity.

A grouping of 110 farmers called Witimba-Kaseghe, manages to produce 2,000 litres a year.

After taking a look at their products displayed at Chitipa District Council where he was making a follow up on a number of reform programmes for councils in the country, Chilima said the group is a good example and an indication that Malawi can be producing some important commodities locally.

He added that with this initiative, prices of commodities like cooking oil may not be that high saying he is ready to help the group by attaching it to other entities that are interested in the business.

"Their cooking oil is lower in price compared to other types made here in Malawi and from outside the country. This shows that although they have low capacity, their prices are low and if they can have a high capacity, prices can go down because when the supply is high, the prices are low. We need to support them," explained Chilima.

Commercial leader for the group, Christon Kabaghe, said the idea came about after noticing high prices of cooking oil in the country.

"We saw that prices were going high but we cultivate sunflower on our own, we cultivate groundnuts on our own and we cultivate soya beans on our own. Tanzanians come to buy these crops, go and make cooking oil and bring back sub-standard cooking oil. So we said no. Why can't we start producing cooking oil ourselves? Our cooking oil is of very good quality," he explained.

The group which started in 2003 has set aside 4 million Kwacha this year for purchase of sunflower.