{"id":14712,"date":"2025-11-06T16:06:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/malawi-activates-grain-export-restrictions-as-four-million-people-face-hunger\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:11","slug":"malawi-activates-grain-export-restrictions-as-four-million-people-face-hunger","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/malawi-activates-grain-export-restrictions-as-four-million-people-face-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi activates grain export restrictions as four million people face hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Malawi is enforcing maize export restrictions to protect stocks of the staple grain, the Trade Ministry said this Thursday, after the government forecast that a fifth of the population faces hunger following a below-average harvest.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The controls are under a 2018 law that restricts the import and export of goods, including maize, the ministry said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;This restriction remains in effect as part of the government&#8217;s continued efforts to safeguard national food security, maintain price stability and protect the livelihoods of the majority of Malawians who depend on maize as their staple food,&#8221; the Ministry said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Malawi harvested 2.9 million metric tons of maize this year, against a national requirement of 3.7 million tons, according to the United States Famine Early Warning Systems Network, citing Malawi&#8217;s agriculture ministry.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">As many as four million Malawians face hunger between now and the next harvest in March 2026, according to a government food security report released in October.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Average maize prices in the southern African country have shot up by at least 50% over the past year, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an initiative involving United Nations agencies and humanitarian organisations.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Aid agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) will this month launch relief efforts in Malawian districts with the biggest food deficits, a WFP Spokesperson told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>. The programme, however, faces a budget deficit of $69 million to meet its food distribution target.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\nMalawi has ordered 200 000 tons of maize from Zambia to help plug its grain deficit.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14713,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-14712","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The controls are under a 2018 law that restricts the import and export of goods, including maize.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The controls are under a 2018 law that restricts the import and export of goods, including maize.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19255,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14712\/revisions\/19255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}