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| Business |
| Tea production goes up as sugar drops |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 10 March 2004
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17:20:00
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The volume of tea produced last year rose by more than six percent while that of sugar fell slightly, latest figures from Stanbic Bank show.
Stanbic said in its latest market analysis report total production of tea in 2003 was about 42 million kgs, up from about 35 million kgs the previous season.
On sales, the bank said, the industry auctioned 16 million kgs at the Limbe market compared to 17 million kgs in 2002.
Last year’s Limbe auction raised about US$15 million, lower than the US$15.8 million realised in 2002.
The volume and the value excludes tea sold outside the floors which represents about 50 percent of the total volume.
This year, the month of February saw 1.469 million kgs sold at an average price of about 94.4 cents/kg compared to 1.470 sold at 99.5 cents the months before.
The tea industry employs 42,000 estate workers and almost 7,000 smallholder farmers.
At a mean average of six persons per household, almost 300,000 Malawians directly rely on tea for the major part of their income, especially in the Southern Region
Tea has been the traditional second most important export earner after tobacco but has now been overtaken by sugar.
In the last season, sugar yields slightly fell to 260,000 metric tonnes from 260.6 million recorded in 2002.
Out of last year’s sugar production, 130,000 tonnes were sold locally, up from 117,000 metric tonnes the year before.
About 54.5 tonnes were exported to overseas markets against 50,000 tonnes shipped last year.
Commenting on the production and export levels, Stanbic economic analyst Kondwani Mlilima said the most important factor is price.
“We may be producing and exporting more but if the prices are low, the impact on the economy becomes marginal,” said Mlilima.
Increase in exports coupled with good prices are important for Malawi now battling to stabilise the volatile kwacha and close a widening trade gap.
The United Kingdom and United States are the major western markets with Spain, France, Belgium and Italy importing in small amounts.
Regionally, 75.5 thousand tonnes were consigned in 2003 compared to 54 thousand tonnes in 2002.
Illovo managing director Brett Stewardson and his officials responsible for trade could not be reached to explain the slight drop in production and give the total value of sugar receipts for last year.
About half of the sugar sold in the regional markets goes to Kenya while South Africa, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) share the rest.
Malawi lost its markets in Tanzania and Mozambique in 2002 but in the same year gained DRC.
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