Govt moves to ban tobacco middlemen

Source from:  Daily Times (mw) 07/04/2007

Government will next year ensure strict enforcement of the ban on intermediate tobacco buying because the practice has contributed to low prices at the auction floors, government has said. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Binton Kutsaira was speaking in Lilongwe Thursday when he opened the 19th Annual General Congress of the Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama). Kutsaira observed that illegal intermediate tobacco buyers were cheating small holder farmers who ended up getting low prices at the auction floors because of poor quality tobacco. “These intermediate buyers just buy tobacco any how, caring only about quantity and this compromises the quality of tobacco that goes to the market and it’s our farmers who suffer because the poor prices affects everyone. “I want to assure Tama that government is aware of this problem and these middlemen are going to be abolished once and for all. Come next year this practice will no longer be tolerated, it’s going to end,” Kutsaira said. General Manager for Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) Godfrey Chapola welcomed government’s commitment saying TCC would ensure that the ban is implemented and that proper procedures in the buying and selling of tobacco are followed. Asked how much has been lost through the practice, Chapola said it was difficult to provide estimates of the loss because the practice was done clandestinely. “It would be hard to provide figures of how much we have lost because of these people since transactions are done in hiding through smuggling. What is important is that government has realised the loss and it is committed to enforcing the ban,” Chapola said. Tama outgoing president Albert Kamulaga said it was sad to note that some tobacco merchants may be perpetrating the practice, “This is very sad. Theft syndicates have also taken advantage of this by stealing from farmers especially those that chose to send their tobacco outside the Tama system”. Kamulaga also observed that there are indications that some tobacco companies have been perpetrating cross border tobacco trade, which robs government of revenue. “This is disturbing in the fact that there is lack of corporate responsibility on the part of the participating tobacco merchant companies and it is no wonder that social responsibility within the tobacco industry has been minimal,” Kamulaga said. Managing Director of Alliance One Tobacco Alastair Craik refused to comment when The Daily Times tried to get his reaction on the accusations leveled against tobacco companies. “I can not comment on that over the phone,” Craik said. The system of intermediate tobacco buyers was introduced in the country in 1994 and abolished in 1998 but the enforcement of the abolition has not been strict.