By Business Contributor
Across Malawi’s markets, farms, and trading centres, a familiar story is playing out — the seller is complaining, while the buyer is happy.
In recent months, small-scale traders and farmers have increasingly found themselves on the losing end of transactions. Rising costs of production, transport, and basic services have squeezed sellers to the bone. Fertiliser prices remain high, fuel costs continue to ripple through the economy, and the weakening kwacha has pushed up the price of imported inputs. For many sellers, breaking even has become a daily struggle.
Yet on the other side of the counter, buyers — especially middlemen and well-capitalised traders — are smiling.
In rural areas, farmers are forced to sell maize, groundnuts, soya beans and other produce at throwaway prices immediately after harvest. Pressured by hunger, school fees, hospital bills and debts, they have little bargaining power. Vendors arrive with cash in hand, dictate prices, and walk away with truckloads of produce. Months later, the same commodities resurface on the market at double or triple the price.
At urban markets, small traders tell a similar story. Wholesalers and large buyers, able to purchase in bulk, negotiate aggressively. Sellers, desperate to recover transport costs or avoid losses from perishable goods, accept unfavourable prices. The buyer walks away satisfied; the seller goes home discouraged.
Government intervention, where it exists, has been inconsistent. ADMARC depots often open late, buy limited quantities, or offer prices that fail to reflect rising costs. In the absence of reliable state markets, private buyers dominate, tilting the balance further against the seller.
Economists warn that this imbalance is dangerous. When sellers — particularly farmers — operate at a loss, production declines. Over time, shortages emerge, pushing prices even higher and hurting consumers as well. What looks like a “good deal” for the buyer today may become tomorrow’s crisis.
For many Malawians, the phrase “ogulisa akudandaula, ogula akusangalala” is no longer a proverb — it is lived experience. Until fair pricing, stable markets and stronger protections for producers are put in place, the smiles of buyers will continue to be matched by the quiet suffering of sellers.
