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| Business |
| Drought cuts North’s burley output by 6% |
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by
Frank Phiri, 24 February 2006
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04:50:12
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Production of burley tobacco in the Northern Region will fall by 6.6 percent this year due to drought which has hit some districts of the region, the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) has said.
TCC says in a first-round crop estimate report that although overall production of the leaf will be 8.4 percent higher than what was sold in 2005, the burley leaf output in the North has stuttered.
The report indicates that the region will produce 36.6 million kilogrammes this year which is 2.6 million kilogrammes lower than what was sold in 2005.
It says the prevalent dry spells prompted some large-scale growers to either stop or reduce production levels.
“Production of burley is lower in the North because despite good availability and affordability of inputs, there were dry spells at the time of transplanting and the dry spells are still prevalent in some areas,” reads the report.
It estimates overall volumes for all leaf types at 156.18 million kilogrammes as compared to 144.02 million kilogrammes last year, which represents an 8.4 percent increase.
The report attributes the increase in overall production to good rainfall distribution, contract farming, good input availability and affordability. Government last year extended the fertiliser subsidy from maize to tobacco growers following pressure from the opposition.
The report indicates increases of 4.2 percent for burley, 27.6 percent for flu-cured, 47.2 percent for Northern Division Dark Fired, and 150 percent for Southern Division Dark Fired.
But TCC warns in the report that final volumes of the leaf could be negatively affected by post harvest losses due to inadequate curing, informal cross-border trade, food shortages which would reduce labour and pests.
Tobacco is Malawi’s major export commodity, accounting for more than 60 percent of the country’s total foreign currency income and determines stability of the kwacha against major trading currencies like the US dollar and South Africa rand.
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