Paul Nyathi|Malawian beer maker, Chibuku Products Limited (CPL), has said it has lost 50 percent of its market share in Dedza, Mchinji and Kasungu to smuggled beer products from Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Chibuku Human Resource and Corporate Affairs Manager, Gloria Zimba, disclosed this after Malawi Revenue Authority impounded a truck loaded with such products at Mchinji Border.

Zimba said districts such as Mchinji are infested with such products as bars and hawkers openly stock them despite being smuggled.

“Almost 90 percent of the bars at Mchinji Boma are selling Zimbabwean Chibuku Super, an beers from Zambia called Ng’ambazi, another one called Nkhwazi and another one called Mafuta. And, to our shock, all these products are sold at very cheap prices when you compare them to our local beer because they are just smuggled into the country.

“We have established that there is a full truck that carries over 2,000 cases. It comes every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Other trucks park on the Zambian side of the border and people cross with their bicycles to buy and, at least, two trucks go through the Mqoucha-Jenda Border,” Zimba said.

She further said the government is also losing revenue to unpaid taxes from beer smugglers.