{"id":73314,"date":"2019-01-17T12:16:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T10:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=73314"},"modified":"2019-01-17T12:16:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T10:16:44","slug":"pressure-mounts-on-food-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/01\/17\/pressure-mounts-on-food-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts on food prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Taonga Sabola: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pressure has started mounting on the country\u2019s staple food, maize, as Malawi passes through the lean season, a snap survey by The Daily Times <\/em>has established.<\/p>\n

The development, if left unchecked, threatens to exert pressure on inflation which rose to 10.1 percent in November 2018.<\/p>\n

A visit to selected produce markets in Blantyre on Tuesday revealed that a 50kg bag of maize was selling at an average price of K10,000 up from K7,500 in November.<\/p>\n

Morris Butao, a maize vendor at Zingwangwa Market, attributed the upsurge in maize prices in recent weeks to the seasonal shortage of the commodity around the months of January and February.<\/p>\n

He said, traditionally, maize prices tend to rise around January and fall in March when harvesting starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it is a seasonal effect. Supply of the commodity in areas where we get it normally falls during these months,\u201d<\/em> Butao said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jane Chiundira, a vendor in Chirimba, attributed the rise in food prices to the onset of the rainy season which has made many earth roads in maize-producing areas impassable.<\/p>\n

She said the development has increased the cost of transporting maize to markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, during this period, demand for the commodity tends to go up as most small-scale farmers are left with no maize stocks,\u201d<\/em> Chiundira said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elevated prices were also recorded on other food items such as rice.<\/p>\n

But the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) Wednesday said Malawians need not to worry as it has in stock plenty of maize.<\/p>\n

Admarc spokesperson, Agness Ndovi, said the State-owned grain marketer is selling maize in its markets at K150 per kg or K7,500 per 50kg bag.<\/p>\n

Ndovi said satellite markets could also be opened in areas far from designated markets on the request of communities.<\/p>\n

In its November 2018 economic report, portfolio management and advisory firm, Nico Asset Managers, said the impact of the lean season could be moderated by humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n

It adds that the tight monetary policy adopted by the Reserve Bank of Malawi would help dampen inflammatory pressures.<\/p>\n

Food is the major contributor to the Consumer Price Index at around 45 percent. The development means any significant shortages of the commodity has an impact on inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Taonga Sabola: Pressure has started mounting on the country\u2019s staple food, maize, as Malawi passes through the lean season, a snap survey by The Daily Times has established. The development, if left unchecked, threatens to exert pressure on inflation which rose to 10.1 percent in November 2018. A visit to selected produce markets in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73317,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73314\/revisions\/73317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}