Parliamentary trade committee visits AHCX

Members of the Parliamentary Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee on Tuesday, April 24, 2021 visited AHL Commodities Exchange (AHCX) head office and trade floor in Lilongwe to get an update on the operations and growth of the exchange and solicit views on what the committee can do to support further development of structured market for legume and grain crops in Malawi.
The committee – which was led by its Vice chairperson Zahir Issa – were taken through briefings by officials from the exchange led by AHCX Board Chairperson, Dr. Evans Matabwa, and also witnessed a live trading of soya on the exchange’s trademark Trade Floor.
In his address to the Members of Parliament, Dr. Matabwa said AHCX still requires the support of Parliament to become a fully-fledged and regulated through laws that will introduce export mandates for selected legume and grain crops, making them strategic export commodities for Malawi.
“Your committee can help us lobby for such regulations to the government because AHCX is more than just an establishment of the AHL Group. It is a national asset that can significantly help transform Malawi’s economy through good prices for farmers and foreign exchange earnings if well supported by both Parliament and the government,” said Matabwa.
In his remarks, Issa said the committee was convinced about the importance of AHCX to Malawi’s economy and would take it upon itself to push for its required regulation through lobbying with the government as well as a private members bill, if necessary.
“It is worrying that Malawi’s economy continues to depend on tobacco only for export earnings yet the crop’s market is dwindling on the international market. As legislators, we have a responsibility to make sure that Malawi finds alternatives to tobacco before its market completely collapses,” said Issa.
AHCX was established in 2013 by the AHL Group – formerly Auction Holdings Limited, to extend the structured market enjoyed by tobacco to some grain and legume crops such as maize, soya, pigeon peas, groundnuts, rice, cow peas and sunflower.
President Peter Mutharika also visited AHCX in December 2017 during which he promised enactment of all laws and policies required for the proper operation of the commodity exchange within 12 months from December.