The Tobacco commission (TC) says preliminary figures from the third round of Tobacco estimates foretells that Malawi will produce less Tobacco at the end of the season than expected.
Speaking in Lilongwe when Deputy Minister of Agriculture Agnes Nkusa Nkhoma toured the Lilongwe Auction floors, TC executive director Kaisi Sadala, said shifts in the weather pattern has been a major skylocating factor to the shrinkage in total tobacco volume.
“It’s not only for Malawi, it’s a regional problem. Even our friends in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia are facing similar challenge.” Said Sadala.
Sadala added that the anticipated shrink has increased competition among buyers on the auction market leading to improvements in prices on the market.
In her remarks, the deputy minister said she was impressed with the prices at the market but stressed that farmers under contract farming were being forced by buyers to buy expensive inputs from them.
Nkhoma said, : “We need to review some of the charges so that at the end of the day the grower benefits. Growers could realize more earnings from their toil if some of the charges were minimized or eliminated.”
Last year, the country sold 165.6 million Kilograms of tobacco making $237 million which is about K 177 billion.
Initially, Malawi planned to produce 155 million Kilograms of tobacco against a trade requirement of 161 million Kilograms.
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