Admarc on Life Support: The Company Needs K144 Billion From Malawians to Still be Alive
The state-owned food trader, Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc), says it needs a shocking K144 billion to operate properly and save itself from collapse in the 2026/2027 financial year.
Admarc General Manager Ben Botolo told Parliament on Friday that the corporation was allocated only K60 billion, forcing it to borrow another K80 billion, which would cost an extra K10 billion in interest.
Botolo also revealed that the company is still struggling under legacy loans of K39.5 billion from CDH Bank, taken years ago to buy maize for price stabilization. These loans are bleeding Admarc of K9.8 billion every year in finance charges, leaving very little for operations or reinvestment.
“Admarc cannot compete fairly with private traders when government delays its funding. In the current fiscal year, we were supposed to get K53.7 billion but received only K5.5 billion—just 10 percent. Some of this money only arrived in February 2026,” Botolo said.
The result? Admarc bought only 22,224 metric tonnes of produce, far short of its target of 65,200 metric tonnes. That included 16,441 tonnes of maize, 2,308 tonnes of beans, and 1,148 tonnes of cotton.
Botolo warned that without proper funding, Admarc cannot support smallholder farmers, stabilize food prices, or compete with private companies. Next year, Admarc plans to buy 38,500 tonnes of crops and sell 50,000 tonnes of fertilizer and 800 tonnes of seeds, but these ambitions are meaningless if the funds don’t arrive on time.
Admarc also hopes to run commercial farming on 1,000 hectares of land and start value-addition projects like rice milling, groundnut grading, cotton ginning, and maize milling, but high borrowing costs are eating two-thirds of its profits, leaving only a third to reinvest.
Co-chairperson of the Parliamentary Cluster Committee, Tiaone Hendry, admitted the truth bluntly: “Admarc has been on a deathbed for a long time. If it is not fully funded, it cannot survive.”
Agriculture experts warned that the corporation has been used for government social projects for years, and only proper funding and freedom to operate commercially will restore its original purpose: buying farmer produce, stabilizing markets, and supporting Malawi’s food security.
Admarc was created in 1971 to market crops, supply farm inputs, and support smallholder agriculture. It used to be the only buyer of smallholder produce until 1987. Today, government owns 99 percent of the company, but chronic neglect and delayed funding have left it teetering on the edge of collapse.
Malawians are left wondering: how can a company that is supposed to secure our food be crippled by loans and poor funding year after year?
If the government fails to act, the next harvest could mean empty granaries, rising food prices, and hungry families, all while Admarc bleeds under the weight of debt and neglect.
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