Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) says it is working on increasing the scope of accreditation of its services to enable universal acceptance of the country’s products to support the export drive. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Minister of Industrialisation, Business, Trade and Tourism George Partridge on Tuesday in Blantyre, MBS acting director general Thomas Senganimalunje said some exporters are still testing their goods abroad despite their capacity to offer the same services at reasonable costs. He said: “MBS is up to the task to support the export drive.
What we need is the current capacity which must be used to the fullest extent possible. “We are targeting value chains which have been earmarked for export like macadamia, tea, honey and so forth.” Senganimalunje said the few industries they have engaged are sending their samples to MBS and abroad. “What we need to do is that confidence must be built,” he said.
On his part, Partridge said MBS is key in facilitating industrialisation and export drive as the organisation sets quality assurance standards and facilitates trade through certification. He said with the capacity and modern equipment, government is banking on the bureau to deliver on their mandate. MBS data show that sending samples abroad for certification costs an average of $300 (about K525 000) per sample for 17 days while MBS has a downtime of 10 days and costs between K10 000 and K250 000 per sample.
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Annually, the bureau tests an average of 70 000 samples, which is still below their capacity. WFP country director Hyoung-Joon Lim is quoted in The Nation as having observed that the use of Liquidity Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer will help Malawi unlock structured markets and elevate the country’s position in regional and global trade, especially for high-value crops such as sesame, cowpeas and sorghum. He said that despite having the potential, Malawi is failing to meet the sesame export market in Japan, exporting 3 000 metric tonnes (MT) per year.
Japanese Ambassador Youchi Oya earlier said sesame is an indispensable food in Japanese cuisine, yet the self-sufficiency rate is low and relies on imports. Sesame is guaranteed about 200 000MT of the export market in Japan, according to WFP.
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