The Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation ( Admarc) has defended a new maize price which has pulled several critics as it has been hiked by 127% of last year price.

According to Admarc Chief executive Foster Mulumbe said this year price is very cheap as they bought maize at k250 per kg and they are selling at the same price.

“Is just people don’t understand, this year price is cheaper than of that last year. Last year we bought maize at k100 per kg and we sold it at k110 per kg, we added k10. This year we added nothing,” he said.

This means that a 50 kilogram bag is now at K12, 500. It represents a 127% increase in the prices when compared to the K5, 500 the same quantity was fetching last year.

However, Malawians still think that the price is unreasonable as many parts of these country vendors are selling their maize cheaper than Admarc, so this new price will just make things worse.

Meanwhile, Malawi is about to experience country wide hunger as last year rain season was not favourable to growing maize.