Malawi president calls for lower cannabis cultivation licence fees
The Cannabis Regulatory Authority set medicinal cannabis cultivation fees at about US$10,000 and the fee for industrial cultivation at about US$2,000.
RUSTENBURG, May 27 (ANA)-Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera wants Malawians to be involved in the production of cannabis and has called for a review of the cannabis licence fees.
According to local media reports, cannabis licence fees are too high for Malawians to afford them.
The Cannabis Regulatory Authority (CRA) set the medicinal cannabis cultivation fee at 8 million Malawian kwacha (about US$10,000) and the fee for industrial cultivation at K1.6 million (about US$2,000).
Answering questions in parliament on Wednesday, Chakwera said Malawi could not allow citizens to be spectators of the cannabis industry due to the high costs and called for the fees to be revisited, news website Malawi24 reported.
Malawi passed a bill decriminalising cannabis for medicinal and industrial use in 2020 and the country adopted a motion for legalised industrial use of cannabis in 2015.
In February 2020, news website Nyasa Times reported that the Cannabis Regulatory Authority had issued 86 licences to 35 companies and co-operatives to venture into cannabis cultivation for industrial hemp production.
According to the report, a total of 41 companies applied but only 35 companies satisfied the requirements.
The cannabis authority issued licences for the cultivation, processing and storage of cannabis but is yet to issue licences for export.
Cannabis production has been viewed as alternative as the country moves away from relying on tobacco cultivation, the country’s main source of foreign exchange.
The news website also published an analysis by Invegrow Limited, a firm that has conducted research on industrial hemp.
The firm found that a kilogramme of industrial hemp could fetch about K32,000 on the market and that there was potential for direct annual benefit to Malawians in excess of K3 billion on 16.5 hectares, or K195 million per five hectares.
The analysis further indicated that the crop has ready markets whose global value chain was worth about K6. 6 trillion (about US$9 billion).
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
