Malawi to Be Earning 300 Million U,S. Dollars Per Year From Chamba Products

19 September 2024
Nyasa Times (Leeds)
By Phillip Pasula

Export Development Fund has hinted that the cannabis products processing plant that is being constructed in Lilongwe has the potential to earn Malawi around 300 million US Dollars (approximately over 520 billion Kwacha) per year.

Managing Director for Export Development Fund, Fredrick Chanza, disclosed this in Lilongwe during a ground breaking ceremony of a factory which will be processing different cannabis products.

The plant which has been designed to meet European and global standards will be producing, extracting, exporting and selling products including active pharmaceutical ingredients to the world market.

The project is being implemented by MMC Laboratories Limited in partnership with Export Development Fund, Mbabzi Estate and Malawi Agriculture and Industrial Investment Corporation.

Secretary for Trade and Industry in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Christina Zakeyo, said through the project, local farmers will benefit by having access to markets, employment and room for diversifying their cropping system instead of relying only on tobacco.

"We are looking at diversification of exports as well as import substitution because we have been importing most of these by-products but now they will be produced in Malawi and will be exported to the region as well as the developed world like the US and the UK," she said.

Export Development Fund Managing Director, Fredrick Chanza, said the country will benefit a lot from the project.

"The impact will be quite huge. This project in the next two to four years has potential to bring into Malawi 300 million Dollars. So we believe this is a step in the right direction in as far as industrialisation is concerned," remarked Chanza.

Board Chairperson for MMC Laboratories Limited, Brian Tempest, reported that over 100 Malawians will get employment and the plant will be a source of foreign exchange.

"There will be over 100 hundred people here they will be from Malawi. We will bring in some expatriates as well to help in the training but in general it will be Malawian employees working here," he said.

The project is expected to cost about 10 million US Dollars and will be ready for commissioning next year, 2025.

Read the original article on Nyasa Times.

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