Tobacco Sales Resume, Farmers Happy with Prices

Source from:  nyasatimes.com Ruby Suzgika on 25 March, 2008 03/26/2008

Tobacco sales resumed this morning at the Lilongwe Auction Floors with most farmers declaring some degree of satisfaction with the prices being offered. The sales were temporarily suspended last Thursday after farmers protested against the prices offered which dropped to as low as US$ 0.60 per kilogram. There were no sales on Friday and Monday due to Easter Holiday. The development came barely 72 hours after farmers went home almost wordless, carrying millions of Kwachas, as the leaf fetched a record US$ 11 (K1500) per kilogram. However, sales at the Limbe Auction Floors failed to start this morning as scheduled due to price disagreements, according to an official at the selling point. An official Nyasa Times found at the Limbe Auction Floors who refused to give his identity said farmers were not ready to start selling their tobacco today until the issue of prices was thoroughly sorted out. But the official told Nyasa Times the sales at the Floors would be opened on Thursday morning, March 27, while at Mzuzu Auction Floors the sales will start on March 31. "The farmers have already communicated that they are not ready to start selling because of the prices. They are waiting for what will happen at the Lilongwe Auction Floors before they start," said the official. Mwagonamphani Mkandawire, a tobacco farmer from Kasungu who was among those who protested against the low prices last Thursday and left the Floors without selling his tobacco, told Nyasa Times in a telephone interview, most farmers seemed satisfied with today's prices. "We are satisfied with today's prices and if the trend continues we hope to have good sales in the coming days," he said. According to Mkandawire, the highest price was US$ 4.10 per kilogram while the lowest was sold at US$ 1.50 per kilogram. Tobacco is Malawi's major foreign exchange and earns about 60 percent of the country's exports. Last year, farmers were selling it between the ranges of US$2 and US$5 per kilogram but this was after President Bingu Mutharika intervened and directed that no leaf should be sold at less than US$ 1.50 per kilogram following poor prices. Enditem