What’s in kaunjika price tag?

Malawi’s founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda ranked clothing among top three basic needs alongside food and shelter.

The British-trained doctor, known for his tailor-made suits, often encouraged the nation to work hard in their crop fields, likening them to goldmines.

Throughout his 31-year rule, he warned against imported secondhand clothes—called kaunjika—that slowly choked the country’s textile industry that once churned out world-class smart wear.

Over three decades after his downfall in 1994, the country that grows cotton along its largest lake and lowlands, is unable to dress its people.

Go to Tsoka Market in Lilongwe or Limbe in Blantyre, you will find Malawians scrambling for hand-me-downs from Europe, America and Asia.

A trader sells secondhand bras in an open market in Malawi. | Nation

“Zatchipa pano! Zatchipa pano!” sellers scream to passers-by.

The sight flashes past in all trading centres along the country’s roads.

Kaunjika could be cheaper than new clothes made in Malawi, but the country’s ailing economy is paying a premium for abandoning its textile industry.

Most of the youthful customers combing into kaunjika piles for shirts, trousers, dresses, jackets, undergarments and bras have never worn anything made in Malawi.

However, customers find secondhand clothes cheap, durable and fashionable.

The appetite for cheap imports makes one wonder: Why is Malawi spending scarce forex importing clothes when it grows cotton?

The World Bank reports that in 2024, Malawi imported about 40 000 tonnes of secondhand clothing worth about $78.4 million. China earned about $48.9 million, followed by Switzerland at $10 million and Pakistan at $7 million.

The economy crippled by persistent forex blues could cut the import bill by producing some of the clothing locally.

However, truckloads of kaunjika bales have partly left cotton fields shrinking in the Shire River and Lake Malawi basin.

“The issue is that the higher end of the value chain was not well developed,” says agricultural expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula.

The cotton-to-clothing chain is snapping as ginneries and textile factories fall apart, starving the domestic and export markets.

Old-timers in Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital, recall textile giants such asKnitwear Industries, Crown Fashions and David Whitehead and Sons employing thousands of Malawians to dress the nation.

Nearly all factories that roared day and night have fallen silent due to competing imports, high production costs, limited investment and other structural problems.

Mapeto general manager Martin Mpata says cheap kaunjika has made the situation harder for local textile manufacturers like his, formerly David Whitehead and Sons.

“Yes, Malawi has the capacity to dress itself and we have been doing this, but Malawians prefer cheap clothes. This has complicated the situation,” he says.

A majority of Malawians—from schoolchildren to policymakers, soldiers, nurses and other civil servants—appear to take pride in imported wear.

This has relegated government, its uniformed agents and the private sector to the receiving end of imported wear that Nkhotakota Central legislator Sylvester Ayuba James (Independent) wants banned.

“Kaunjika is killing our textile industry,” he laments. However, government faces a tough balancing act—protecting local textile manufacturers and affordable wear for low earners.

Economist Christopher Mbukwa, from Mzuzu University, faults the country’s “fragile textile value chain”.

“Malawi produces cotton but has limited capacity to turn it competitively into fabric and affordable finished garments,” he says.

Mbukwa backs a gradual ban on kaunjika.

He argues: “Kaunjika provides cheap options for low-income consumers and supports traders, transporters and market workers.

“Therefore, restrictions should be introduced when local producers have the capacity to offer affordable, good-quality alternatives.Otherwise, smuggling and prices could rise without necessarily reviving local manufacturing,” he warns.

For Mbukwa, rapid population growth opens an investment opportunity from cotton farming to textile processing.

“Such investment could create jobs, save foreign exchange and expand the tax base. Government could help create demand by purchasing locally produced school, hospital, police and military uniforms,” he says.

However, rebuilding the textile industry will require more than shielding local manufacturers from competition. Factories need reliable electricity, modern machinery, affordable finance, skilled labour and competitive production costs.

The Cotton Council of Malawi says farmers need quality seed, affordable inputs and reliable markets.

Ministry of Industrialisation, Business, Trade and Tourism spokesperson Patrick Both says: “We aren’t happy that we are wasting forex on secondhand stuff. While banning kaunjika is an option, our priority is to support the cotton and textile industries in the country.

“We still have the structures, with ginneries in almost all the districts that grow cotton. Currently, there is little capacity. We are working with other ministries to ensure this is brought back to life to support Malawi 2063 [which promotes agricultural productovity and industrialisation].”

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