Family working on tobacco

Minimum prices for tobacco sales at the auction floors in Malawi will be slightly lower this year.

The Tobacco Control Commission-TCC-attributed this to a general decrease in cost of production.

TCC  General Manager Dr. Bruce Munthari told zodiak online that the minimum buying price for a kilogram of burley tobacco has this year been pegged at 2 dollars 15 cents down from last year’s.

According to Dr. Munthari, a kilogram of flue cured tobacco pegged at 3 dollar nine cents last season is this year put at 3 dollars per kilogram.

The drop in minimum price for burley represents a 6.8 percent while that in flue cured represents a 3 percent.

“There has been a slight drop in prices this season largely due to a decrease in the cost of production”, says Munthari.

He however says the prices will vary according to grades of tobacco.

On price compliance from buyers Dr. Munthari says the prices have been set after consultation with buyers implying that his office expects that all stakeholders would adhere to them.

“We have been engaging different buyers in the setting of these minimum prices and we hope there will be no price disagreements,” says the GM.

In the past, the minimum prices have been announced publicly by the president although reality on the ground had generally been that buyers did not comply.

In some instances, the scenes turned nasty with government deporting senior officers from buying companies deemed sabotaging government policies.

The general argument of the buyers last season was that the quality of the leaf was not to the mark and did not warrant the demanded minimum prices.

Lilongwe Auction floors will open on Monday March 15 2010. Limbe Auction floors will be next of 17 March while Mzuzu and Chinkhoma markets open on March 22^nd.

Tobacco is the major earner of Malawi’s forex.