Fertiliser-selling cartels that have built their business empires over the years on frustrating the Malawi government’s fertiliser procurement supply chain in Malawi have launched a media smear campaign against the Minister of Agriculture, Roza Mbilizi.
The development follows indications that their companies may not be lucky to again supply Peter Mutharika’s government with overpriced fertilisers for the 2026/2027 growing season.
During the MCP administration, the cartels were making huge profits from selling fertilisers as agents of manufacturers.
The cartels’ artificial price-fixing tactics saw the prices of fertiliser skyrocketing from around K35,000 to around K220,000 in the 2025/2026 growing season, directly affecting Dr Lazarus Chakwera’s 2025 re-election prospects.
Chakwera had promised that his government was to sell fertilisers; urea and NPK at MK4,500.00 for a 50kg bag.
As the 2026/27 growing season looms, the cartel companies have stockpiled fertilisers in Kenya and DRC, waiting in the wings for the government of Malawi to engage in panic buying so that they could once again make a killing.
A policy decision by the SFFRFM board of directors to source fertiliser from Zambia, citing fair prices and logistical ease, sixty days before commencement of the rainy season, has not gone down well with fertiliser cartels in Malawi that are now staring at a possible loss.
In reaction to the decision by SFFRFM, the cartels, led by Export Trading Limited and Farmers World Limited, have launched secret but coordinated character assassinations against Minister of Agriculture Roza Mbilizi, accusing her of being behind the decision to sideline them; a decision which they claim would translate into a loss of business and profit for the cartel.
SFFRFM is a parastatal of the Government of Malawi, complete with its own board of directors. The board makes its own decisions while the Ministry of Agriculture is the policy holder for the state agency.
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