Sugarcane farmers will now sell their cane to Illovo Sugar (Malawi) at a price that is 8.4% more, as the company has increased its buying price from K225 168 per tonne to K244 245 per tonne.

The above has eased complaints by the farmers, as they complained to the government about the declining revenue in the sugar sector. Representative of the farmers, Henry Chimunthu Banda, presented figures that showed that sugar earnings for farmers went down by a minimum of 15-25%. Banda attributed the drop to attributes to the drop in prices to the influx of illegal and imported sugar on the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade has committed to table the Sugar Bill during Parliament sitting this month. The Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe admitted that the government has taken a long time to have the Bill ready for debate in Parliament, but he vowed to personally follow up with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the Bill comes to Parliament for debate. Over the past decades the country has been producing sugar without a law to protect the product despite it being the third largest foreign exchange earner after tobacco and tea.