MCDA Final Report Malawi - Standards and Trade Development ...

certification can be obtained from international service providers, probably at lower overall cost
than developing the internal capacity for certification within Malawi.
SPS controls for cotton: Cotton is a priority crop for Malawian agriculture. Exports of this crop
might include cotton lint, oilseed cake (for use as animal feed) and cooking oil. Given that
cotton has a significant range of pests it would be necessary for Malawi to be able to comply
with phytosanitary, food safety and crop chemical residue requirements of the importing
countries for these products. This option is excluded, however because: i) cotton lint has no
binding phytosanitary issues; ii) oilseed cake is unlikely to have chemical and/or aflatoxin
residues and buyers are likely to carry out residue tests if their customers or import regulations
require them to; and iii) whilst there can be some food safety problems with cottonseed oil,
major pressing companies are well able to deal with these.
The 16 capacity-building options remaining after this initial sifting process are outlined in Table 4. These
options proceeded to the priority-setting stage of the analysis.
Table 4. Choice set of SPS capacity-building options
Option
Name
Number
Details
1 Post-harvest treatment for mangoes Mango production for processing and fresh fruit exports
is being planned in Malawi. Since it is a requirement of
destination markets that mitigation measures are in
place for fresh fruit exports, the proposed activity will
develop a post-harvest treatment based on high
temperature forced air technology (HTFA) to disinfest
the fruit of B. invadens, and provide the equipment to
treat export fruit.
2 Aflatoxin controls for groundnuts The ability of smallholders to meet aflatoxin standards is
limited. In addition the control of aflatoxin by
conventional means (e.g. improved post-harvest
management) has had limited impact over the years.
The intervention aims at providing a systems approach to
mycotoxin contamination in groundnuts together with a
low cost aflatoxin bio-control remedy to smallholders
that will increase the likelihood of meeting EU limits for
the contaminant, as well as reducing dietary intake of
the domestic population.
3 Aflatoxin controls for maize The ability of smallholders to meet aflatoxin standards
for maize is limited. In addition the control of aflatoxin
by conventional means (e.g. improved post-harvest
management) has had limited impact over the years.
The intervention aims at providing a systems approach to
mycotoxin contamination together with a low cost
aflatoxin bio-control remedy to smallholders that will
increase the likelihood of meeting EU limits for the
contaminant, as well as reducing dietary intake of the
population as a whole.
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