Time to think again about agri-food business investment in Malawi 

For the past couple of years CASA Malawi has been building the commercial and development case for investment in promising agri-food businesses. It is now ready to showcase five enterprises during a five-day Investment Facilitation Tour.

The CASA team has been providing technical assistance to a number of poultry and aquaculture businesses in Malawi. Typically CASA works with agri-SMEs that are sourcing from empowered smallholder producers, and this engagement can be transformative for the farming families involved.  Support from CASA has allowed companies to expand using outgrowers that are smallholder farmers. This approach helps the farming families to overcome challenges of accessing high quality inputs and access to markets. In parallel the team has also provided assistance to ensure that the enterprises are able to provide all of the documentation the investors would look for.

Innocent Thindwa from CASA explains: ‘The CASA process is designed to help entrepreneurs to get the investment they need to grow. So, in June 2023, we will be taking a group of investors to visit five investment-ready businesses. There is a real value in visiting the businesses in person and not just reading a report.’

Investment Facilitation Tours are core to the CASA’s work on promoting investment in agri-businesses. By encouraging investors to see the agri-food businesses first hand they get the opportunity to have informed conversation about the business plans, the people championing the enterprise, the small-scale producers whose livelihoods are improved.