Recommended price of 1kg packet of Illovo sugar increased from K3,700 to K4,600

* When the public was buying at parallel black market price of up to K5,000 a packet, the recommended retail price as of October 3 was at K3,700

* According to the dynamics associated with sugar hoarding, the parallel new price is anticipated to be inflated further

By Duncan Mlanjira

Effective today, January 24, 2026, Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc has adjusted prices of sugar across its whole range of which the retail price of a 1kg packet of brown sugar, commonly used in all households across the country, has increased by K900 — from K3,700 to K4,600.

Already, consumers were buying the 1kg packet at parallel black market price of as high as K5,000 due to unscrupulous sugar distribution traders, who were hoarding the commodity in their warehouse to create a cosmetic scarcity in order to profit by inflating the prices.

When the public was buying up to K5,000 a packet, the recommended retail price as of October 3 was at K3,700 and according to the dynamics associated with sugar hoarding, the new price is anticipated to be inflated further unless swift action is taken by the authorities to arrest the impending situation.

Meanwhile, Illovo intensified its production of affordable small packages of Brown 90g, which is now at K600 from K450 with Brown 200g at K1,100 from K850 and Brown 500g at K2,600 from 2,100.

Refined white sugar is at K5,000 up from K4,600 while the speciality Demerera brand is also at K5,000 from K4,600 with 50kg Brown Fort and Brown Industry at K203,816 each from K164,740.

Illovo Sugar Malawi maintains that it has sufficient stocks available in Nchalo, Dwangwa, Limbe, Lilongwe and Karonga to meet the demand up to April when the season production shall resume.

Managing Director, Ronald Ngwira made the assurance on Wednesday when the Ministry of Industrialisation, Business, Trade & Tourism — led by the then Minister, George Partridge toured the company’s Nchalo Estate in Chikwawa to assess sugar availability on the market and appreciate its operational challenges.

President Peter Mutharika has since relieved Partridge from this Ministerial portfolio and appointed him as the new Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), 24 hours after he toured Nchalo Estate.

Partridge indicated that discussions with Illovo management highlighted persistent challenges, including theft of cane from its fields and the effects of climate change on production: “We have understood the extent of the issue and how they are sorting it out.”

He further said the Ministry was working with Illovo to strengthen sugar distribution systems and enforce licensing regulations in order to solve sugar hoarding and smuggling.

During off-production season around December and April, sugar becomes scarce that leads to increase of prices but this has been discovered not to be the case of Illovo failing to meet any demand since the company produces enough stock for national consumption during the off-production period.

When it was alluded to him that the scarcity of the commodity is due to hoarding and smuggling, Partridge told the media that the Ministry is working with Illovo “to take out distributors who violate their licences”.

He added that there is “a near monopoly or oligopoly on the distributorship”, thus working with Illovo to strengthen sugar distribution systems and enforce licensing regulations to solve the sugar hoarding and smuggling.