Battle over Malawi’s fertiliser trade: Minister Mbilizi accuses cartels of trying to derail reform plans

Agriculture Minister Roza Fatchi Mbilizi has hit back at claims swirling around her reform of Malawi’s fertiliser procurement system — with her team accusing shadowy trading cartels of orchestrating a smear campaign to discredit her.

According to sources close to the Minister, she has come under fire after pushing for a major overhaul of how the Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) buys its stock — favouring direct deals with fertiliser manufacturers over the traditional web of middlemen and agents.

Her team claims the shake-up has ruffled feathers among certain players in the fertiliser trade who have long profited from acting as go-betweens for manufacturers and government institutions.

Mbilizi’s position, according to those close to her, is that SFFRFM should be buying fertiliser directly from producers wherever possible — a move she argues would secure better prices, guarantee supply and streamline the entire distribution chain.

She insists the initiative is designed to strengthen SFFRFM’s core mission: delivering affordable fertiliser and farming inputs to smallholder farmers across the country.

Officials backing the reform argue that cutting out the middlemen would allow the fund to negotiate bulk discounts directly with manufacturers, slash costs tied to multiple intermediaries, and eliminate the delays that have long plagued the procurement process.

They also say the new approach would help shield Malawi’s fertiliser supply from global price shocks and the kind of supply chain chaos that has rattled the agricultural sector in recent years.

Any new supplier deal would still need to go through a rigorous vetting process, including supplier assessments, due diligence checks, legal consultations and sign-off from the relevant authorities before being finalised.

Officials say previous procurement arrangements — often involving several layers of suppliers — routinely drove up costs and created inefficiencies, ultimately pushing fertiliser prices out of reach for ordinary farmers.

Under the new model, fertiliser would flow directly from manufacturers into SFFRFM’s distribution network, cutting out unnecessary costs and speeding up delivery to farmers on the ground.