Agro-processing and Marketing
Abundant Raw Materials
Opportunities in agro-processing, including cotton ginning and spinning,textile and garment manufacturing, fruit processing,fisheries, and aquaculture,beef and dairy processing, leather processing, fisheries, horticulture, medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp, legumes, oil seed production, and production of sugar cane products also exist.
In addition, opportunities exist for companies to export fertiliser into Malawi or set up local fertiliser production plants.
Malawi currently imports over 90 percent of its fertiliser, approximately 430, 000 metric tons per year.
Incentives
Population growth and urbanization has resulted in increased demand for processed food and
agricultural products domestically and globally. Hence, this presents huge market opportunities for the food processing industry which implies access to cheap labour for medium-and small-scale agro-businesses/enterprises.
The merits of establishing processing in plants in rural areas are plentiful. For example, proximity to raw materials offers advantages.
Numerous companies headquartered in urban hubs source their raw materials from remote regions, incurring substantial transportation costs. By contrast, processing units in rural areas could not only harness local resources and offer much -needed employment but also present cost- effective alternatives for established food processing players.
Besides this,Dairy farms enjoy a waiver from customs duty, exercise and VAT on specialised machinery, equipment, and other related goods, as well as from exercise duties on the purchase of raw materials and packaging materials made in Malawi