Parliamentary Budget Cluster of the Agriculture and Natural Resources has challenged the Cannabis Regulatory Authority (CRA) to work towards finding markets to enable Malawi gain from their investment in industrial hemp.

During a meeting with CRA in Lilongwe yesterday, cluster co-chairperson Welani Chilenga said it was worrying that Malawi is yet to start exporting cannabis products and farmers are struggling to find markets for their produce.

He accused CRA of failing to regulate and manage the cannabis industry.

Chilenga’s co-chairpeson Sameer Suleman said the expectation was to see cannabis production beating tobacco exports, but Malawi was struggling while other countries that legalised cannabis production are reaping the benefits.

“We would want to see cannabis at par with tobacco or even beating tobacco because the demand is there. It is possible,” he said.

Suleman also called on CRA to promote the local variety, saying there is high demand for it and it is easy to produce.

In response, CRA board chairperson Betty Chinyamunyamu conceded that the country has not benefited from the industry.

She said: “Cannabis was supposed to be the alternative to tobacco and other exports but that has not been the case. But there is still room for improvement and if CRA can get support from Parliament and government, it can manage to make a difference.”

Chinyamunyamu said CRA needs adequate funding and called for the need to properly strategise on promoting the cannabis industry.

In the past two years, government has been allocating about K200 million to CRA against the institution’s proposed budget of K1.9 billion annually to effectively carry out its operations.

Chinyamunyamu called for Parliament’s support to strengthen the foundation for the industry, saying for the industry to thrive there was need for CRA to conduct research on the ground including markets.

She observed that the cannabis industry had been established on hearsay; hence, the need for data.

C h i n y a m u n y a m u further cited shortage of human resource as another challenge, saying out of a required 57 members of staff they have only 10.

This year, CRA has been allocated K350 million in the national budget. It expects to collect about K311 million from applications and licences. However, the authority needs K1.6 billion to operate effectively in the 2023/24 financial year.

The cluster has pledged to push for increased funding to CRA to enable it to carry out activities to promote the industry.

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