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| Business |
| Tobacco sales on hold in Lilongwe |
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by
George Ntonya, 29 April 2004
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16:39:55
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Tobacco growers from the Central Region Thursday forced Lilongwe auction floors to suspend tobacco sales because they found prices too low.
Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama) first vice president Charles Mwansambo said the growers could not allow the sale to continue when their product was fetching peanuts.
“What was being offered yesterday was poor. The farmers have every reason to complain and if this issue is not resolved today, we are going to refer it to the Ministry of Agriculture,” Mwansambo said in an interview Thursday. “We are going into the meting shortly to discuss the prices with the buyers.”
Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) general manager Gedffrey Chapola could not be reached for comment.
“He is in a meeting to discuss the same issue you have called for,” an official at his office reported.
According to Mwansambo, tobacco growers offered an average of US$1.11 per kilogramme for burley. Some bales of tobacco went at as low as US 80cents per kilogramme, he said.
“For example, a grower from Kasungu sold 100 bales at US 80 cents per kilogramme,” Mwansambo claimed adding that tobacco prices were better the first four weeks of the current season when buyers offered an average of US$1.24 per kilogramme.
A few days ago authorities also suspended tobacco sales because growers lost temper after one of the checkers claimed he had found plastic papers in some bales.
Towards the end of last year the government and tobacco buying companies urged smallholder farmers to increase their production, promising that prices would be better this season.
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