Malawi is set to have the largest rice factory in southern Africa country in Nkhotakota district as one way of increasing exports from this country.
The multimillion rice factory at Mpamatha in Nkhotakota will ready for its operations soon as the construction at site it is at an advanced stage.
The factory courtesy of Mtalimanja Holdings Limited (MHL) will help 10,000 small scale farmers in Malawi in production of quality rice.
MHL managing director David Kamchacha said the factory will also help to offer employment opportunities to locals around Mpamatha.
“The factory is almost ready,soon will be having tests to our machines and we hope that operations will begin very shortly”
This factory will be the largest in Southern Africa countries and we hope that will be able to help in generation of foreign currency through exports”
“If we can be producing 100,000 metric tonnes of rice and be managing to export 800,000 metric tonnes we can be generating forex amount to 480 million dollars per year” said Kamchacha.
Earlier, Japanese Ambassador Shuichiro Nishioka said Malawi has best quality rice in the world and there is need to produce it in huge quantities because it can easily be exported.
“If I was asked to offer advice on what crop that can do well apart from tobacco, I would say that Malawi rice is very good. What is needed is just to increase production and then markets can be found outside” said Nishioka.
The factory has since assured farmers a chance to get a ready market for their rice and better prices of their product.
Source: Malawi24