During the Annual Export Seminar organised by the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) on Tuesday, exporters spoke up on what they felt was leading to underperformance in their trade.

For instance, lack of equipment, capital, certification and accreditation is what was holding the gemstone products exporters from progressing, according to the trade’s experts. On the other hand, Amos Suluma, owner of a company that produces macadamia nuts, bemoaned that there is lack of deliberate government policy to support macadamia nuts production as well as the financing challenges as most of the banks do not take the risk to finance long-term investment. “Macadamia nuts take about seven years to produce yields for exports.” said Suluma

Meanwhile the five-year Nation Export Strategy (NES) that closed in 2018, has been called a fail, during its review by stakeholders and involved players in the sector. The new strategy which will run from 2019-2022 is thought to have been planned, learning from the prior strategy. The new strategy will therefore correct the mistakes from the last strategy, while providing solutions for constraints faced by the last strategy.