By Wanangwa Tembo
At the height of the 2024/2025 lean season, a 50-kilogramme bag of maize cost as much as K100 000, an unbearable reality in a country where the grain is life itself.
A majority of households skipped meals as markets thinned and hope grew scarce: Survival came with a high price tag.
“That was actually commercializing survival. It was a puzzle to see authorities, especially from the political side celebrating high maize prices in a country that relies on grain as its staple food,” says Isaki Manda, a resident of Chitete Township in Kasungu.
He continues: “It was not easy to survive in such an environment. It was a death sentence for many vulnerable households.”
His words echo the experience of millions during a period when the promise of affordable food seemed distant, despite earlier commitments by the Tonse Alliance government, which had pledged cheap fertiliser at K4, 995 to ensure food security.
The subsequent years after 2020 brought soaring maize prices and deepening hardship for every consumer and some traders who felt the imbalance.
“There must be some balance. We should not punish farmers; equally we should not punish consumers,” says Wilson Hara, a maize vendor from Vibangalala in Mzimba.
“For long in the past, the prices have been so punitive to the many consumers,” he says.
By September 2025, maize prices averaged K65 000 nationwide, reaching K80 000 in districts like Neno. These levels defined a full-blown food crisis.
Campaigning under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika framed the food crisis as “man-made” and promised swift corrective action if elected.Upon assuming office, the President doubled down on that pledge.
“Malawi is in a crisis. And it is a man-made crisis that can be solved by humans,” he declared during his inauguration.
His administration moved quickly, importing maize, distributing relief, and stabilising supply chains such that within months, prices dropped dramatically, even during the lean season, falling to as low as K35,000 in some areas and staying below K50,000 in most.
“When I assumed office, Malawi was in a serious food crisis. The price of maize was beyond the reach of many families.
“What we have managed to deliver in four months, is far more than what some governments could not deliver in five years,” Mutharika told Parliament in February.
The intervention marked a significant policy shift, from allowing market forces to dominate, to actively managing supply to protect consumers effectively, reversing what many had described as the commercialisation of survival.
In January 2026, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation, Joseph Mwanamveka made a bold prediction that maize prices would fall further to K20 000 per 50kg bag.
At the time, the statement sounded too ambitious and, expectedly, courted debate. Yet as the harvest season unfolds, that forecast is increasingly becoming reality.
A survey by information officers across the country show that there is an exponential deceleration of maize prices.
In districts such as Mulanje, Phalombe and Zomba, a 50-kilogram bag of maize is now selling at as low as K20 000, while in Balaka, Chiradzulu and Thyolo, the price is averaging K25 000.
In Kasungu, Dedza and Machinga, the commodity is going at around K30 000, with slightly higher prices of about K35,000 being recorded in Mangochi and Nsanje, whereas Blantyre and Chikwawa are registering grain prices averaging K40 000.
The trend is equally evident in the northern region, where maize is commonly traded in pails. In Rumphi, a 20-litre pail is selling at about K13 000, while in Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay, the same quantity is fetching K18,000.
In Mzuzu and Chitipa, the price is slightly lower at K17,000, whereas in Likoma it is going at K22,000, pointing to a nationwide decline.
Presenting the 2026/2027 National Budget, Mwanamveka said the management of maize prices reflects government’s commitment to restoring macroeconomic stability, rebuilding confidence, and laying the foundation for inclusive and resilient growth.
Experts point to a combination of factors behind the price collapse, arguing that increased supply due to harvests; government imports; and input subsidies are at play.
“The first thing that we need to understand is that we are passing through the harvest season; meaning the supply of maize on the market will be increasing,” says agriculture policy expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula.
“But, also, we noted that government recently imported some maize from Zambia which also increased supply on the market,” he says.
He adds that beneficiaries of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) have lower production costs, enabling them to sell at reduced prices without heavy losses.
Asked what should happen to sustain the prices, Nkhono says government should ensure that there is increased supply of maize on the market.
“Once the supply drops, government can inject additional maize in the market either through imports, or buying from local farmers through Admarc or NFRA and, at the end of the day, government should implement a consumer subsidy on that maize,” Nkhono reasons.
He continues: “So, if NFRA or Admarc are selling their maize at lower prices, that will force other players also to reduce their prices,”.
But the Agriculture policy expert is quick to point out some underlying consequences that would come with such policies.
“If government artificially crashes the prices, it is a disincentive to commercial maize production which means production of maize will solely depend on subsistence farmers, which may not be a long-term profitable policy for the country because what you are telling the farmers is that maize is not profitable,” he cautions.
However, from what Mwanamveka told Parliament in his budget presentation, government is aware of this risk in that the 2026/2027 national budget commits to sustaining these gains through strategic investment in agriculture.
For instance, Government has allocated K60 billion specifically for maize purchases to boost supply and to stabilise the market, alongside another K60 billion directed to Admarc to facilitate the purchase and distribution of commercial maize and other crops.
At least K111.45 billion has been earmarked for the Fertiliser Input Subsidy Programme for the upcoming growing season; while K11.3 billion has been set aside to support the local production and procurement of maize seed.The budget further provides K40 billion for the National Irrigation Development Programme to reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture; while the Shire Valley Transformation Project and the Programme for Rural Irrigation Development have also received substantial allocations of K241.1 billion and K3 billion respectively.
Further, K14 billion has been committed to Mega Farm initiatives across various public institution; K18.1 billion for the Mega Farms Coordinating Unit; K2.68 billion for the NFRA operations and silo rehabilitation; and K1 billion for mechanised farm operations through hiring centres.
According to the minister, these investments, together, reflect a comprehensive approach to ensuring long-term food availability and price stability.
For now, the mood among consumers is one of relief and even celebration as Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) president John Kapito says: “Why should we not celebrate if the prices are going down? Unless one is not a consumer.”
Kapito acknowledges uncertainty about the future but insists the present gains are meaningful.
“This is harvesting time and we should expect the prices to go down,” he says.
Malawi’s food story is, at its core, a political one.
From the Tonse Alliance’s early fertiliser promises to the DPP’s campaign on restoring affordability, maize has remained central to governance and public trust.
Where high prices once symbolised farmer empowerment, they also exposed consumer vulnerability, hence today, the emphasis is shifting toward balance, ensuring that neither producers nor consumers are punished, a shift that decommercialises survival.
Today, in markets across Kasungu, Mzimba, Zomba, and beyond, maize is affordable again and plates are fuller, making survival no longer feel like a commodity.
