Rice millers eye export markets

Expanding Horizons: Malawi Rice Millers Set Sights on Lucrative Export Opportunities

Post was last updated: December 21, 2025

Key Business Points

  • Malawi’s rice millers face significant challenges in expanding into international markets due to energy constraints and competition from foreign buyers, hindering their growth aspirations.
  • Access to reliable power and fair trading conditions are crucial for local rice millers to increase their competitiveness and meet demand, with companies like Chambayika Milling Limited struggling with frequent electricity outages.
  • Affordable financing options are essential for small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to grow, with initiatives like the Financial Inclusion Entrepreneurship Scaling (Fines) project providing K75 billion in loans to 48,830 MSMEs across Malawi since 2021.

Local rice millers in Malawi are eager to expand their operations and explore new markets, but they face significant challenges that threaten their growth aspirations. Energy constraints and aggressive competition from foreign buyers are major hurdles that local millers need to overcome. For instance, Karonga-based TG Rice producers, Mphanga Holdings Limited, plans to increase its product base and explore new revenue streams through value addition, but competition from foreign buyers, particularly from Tanzania, is enormous. Tanzanians procure raw paddy from Malawi, export it after value-addition, and sell it at higher prices, leaving local millers unable to compete due to currency weakness and export constraints.

Another major challenge facing local rice millers is unreliable power supply. Karonga-based Chambayika Milling Limited, for example, processes and packages 10 tonnes of rice per day, but frequent electricity outages make it difficult to meet demand. The company’s chief operations officer, Walekani Mhango, emphasized the need for reliable power, quality packaging, and fair trading conditions at the borders to grow the business. As Mhango noted, "To grow, we need access to reliable power, quality packaging, and fair trading conditions at the borders." This highlights the importance of kufikia kwa umeme (access to electricity) for businesses to thrive.

The Government of Malawi has recognized the importance of the rice crop in the country’s overarching 2063 vision, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and national food security and economic development. To support the rice sector, the government established the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS-1) in 2014, which aimed to improve the competitiveness of the rice industry. However, the implementation of NRDS-1 was often scanty, and the impacts were limited. To reinvigorate the developments in the rice sector, NRDS-2 (2024/30) was developed, which envisions the rice industry in Malawi to become regionally more competitive and socio-economically sustainable. The strategy aims to double domestic rice production from 155,433 MT in 2022 to 330,000 MT by 2030, creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs to benefit from the growing demand for rice.

To address the financing gap facing MSMEs, the Fines project, funded by the World Bank, has been providing affordable financing options to businesses across Malawi. Since 2021, the project has disbursed K75 billion in affordable loans to 48,830 MSMEs, easing one of the sector’s biggest challenges—access to capital. The loans, offered at a rate of 14 percent, have been offered to 32,396 women-owned businesses, 9,201 youth-led enterprises, and 7,233 run by men. As Fines project manager Ralph Tseka noted, "many Malawians have benefitted" from the initiative, which has helped to kuwongolera kwa biashara (grow businesses) and create new opportunities for entrepreneurs. With the right support and financing, local rice millers can overcome the challenges they face and achieve their growth aspirations, contributing to Malawi’s economic development and uchumi kuwala (economic growth).

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Vanessa Banda
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