Key Highlights
• During this reporting period, the Survival Minimum Expenditure Baskets (SMEBs) decreased across the country compared to early September, but still remain higher than previous months. In urban areas, the SMEB significantly decreased by 7.7 percent. Similarly, the SMEB decreased in all rural areas by 3.3 percent, 2.0 percent and 3.0 percent in the rural Northern, rural Central and rural Southern Regions, respectively, due to a decrease in both the food and non-food components. This decrease is temporal, as it is expected that the SMEB will continue to increase in the coming weeks as the 2021/2022 lean season approaches.
• The price of maize grain declined slightly in the current period compared the previous round. Maize is trading at MK 149 per kg, almost the same as the Government’s minimum farmgate selling price of MK 150 per kg but far below the Government’s prescribed ADMARC selling price of MK 205 per kg.
• Beans are selling at MK 1,057 per kg, a record high price in the last six months, a jump from an average of MK 1,000 per kg in the previous month, representing a 5.7 percent increase.
• Cowpea and pigeon pea prices have increased by 3.7 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, between August and September 2021. The price of cowpeas increased from MK 592 per kg to MK 614 per kg, while the price of pigeon peas rose from MK 458 per kg to MK 514 per kg.
Source: World Food Programme