APAC Investments
Established in 2013, APAC Investments is a prominent Malawian fish marketing company based in the western district of Mchinji, and also operating in Dowa District. Initially, APAC served as a local distributor for a Zambian aquaculture company, operating a single outlet in Mchinji. Currently, the company sources its fish from smallholder fish farmers within the country through its extensive offtaking scheme. APAC plans to expand its operations to include fish feed production, to be produced and supplied to farmers under its offtaking arrangement to enhance their productivity and increase fish volumes aggregated by the company. The Managing Director, Alex Nkhande Phiri, has 11 years of experience managing APAC and WHOA International.
Fish Aggregation and Offtaking for Enhanced Investment
The project planned to demonstrate to fish traders how provision of market-led incentives such as improved access to reliable and lucrative markets can lead to increased productivity among smallholders and also attract increased investments into the sector.
Facing a growing demand for local tilapia, known as Chambo, APAC partnered with CASA to establish a fish sourcing model with smallholder farmers near its outlets. The model involved mobilising and organising 2,021 fish farmers (46% women) into producer groups, enhancing their productivity through training in climate-smart aquaculture management practices, so that they could produce over 300 tonnes of fish per annum, and purchasing table-sized Chambo from these farmer groups. Unfortunately, the project missed out the vital provision of quality fish feed that became too expensive for the farmers to buy for themselves and subsequently they were unable to produce fish of the size required by APAC.
At a total project cost of £86,486, this 27-month project ran until September 2024. CASA provided £54,311 worth of support, of which £48,311 financed technical assistance whilst small grants totalling £6,000 subsidised the cost of farmer mobilisation and engagement in remote areas of Dowa, Kasungu, and also Mchinji.
The partnership also supported APAC’s intention to seek investment to fulfil its long-term goal of becoming a local producer of floating fish feed. The supplying farmers are a potential ready market for 450 tonnes of floating fish feed to be made by the company capitalising on the cake by-product from WHOA International, a sister company to APAC, that focuses on cooking oil processing. For this initiative, CASA provided technical assistance for assessing the economic viability of the fish feed production operation as a separate business line, which led to development of the business and investment plan. CASA also provided business development services to APAC, including the development and adoption of improved financial management systems and all the necessary documentation to facilitate investment.
All APAC now requires is the machinery to invest in manufacturing floating feeds and is currently seeking £180,000 in investment to set it up.
Updated: July 2025