Bingu Takes on Ministers on Tobacco

Source from:  MW Nation 03/18/2011

President Bingu wa Mutharika charged on Tuesday that Cabinet ministers, principal secretaries and chief executive officers of public and private enterprises are silent on poor prices offered by tobacco buyers because they have contracts to sell their crop at higher prices. Mutharika, speaking when he opened this year's sales at the newly-constructed K730 million (about $4.8 million) Chinkhoma Auction Floors in Kasungu, said he was a lone soldier in a crusade for better prices. He asked buyers to have "a human heart" and share their profits with poor farmers. "I ask you my colleagues, ministers, principal secretaries and chief executives to utilise this market. You don't use the market because you sell your tobacco on contract. You have left the battle to me. I am a farmer but I don't grow tobacco, but you, who grow tobacco, don't sell here and I know this," he said. Mutharika said buyers duped him on Monday. He said they offered good prices when he opened the Lilongwe Auction Floors only to hear that the market had closed a few hours later when they started offering poor prices again. The President said he was open to any investment that would benefit Malawians and challenged the companies to go and report "anywhere", including to donors and the press which, he said, specialises in critiquing his administration. "The press should say 'a visibly angry Mutharika said…' because I am very angry. After I take action, you report to donors, civil society and the press, but I do not care because I am fighting for the poor man and woman who painfully grows tobacco. "The tobacco here is of high quality and you can't pay $0.80 per kilogramme for that. That's theft," charged Mutharika. He asked farmers to avoid adding non tobacco-related materials into their bales, saying it was giving buyers an excuse to pay low prices. He described some of them as "thieves" who are always looking for an opportunity to pay less. Deputy Agriculture Minister Margaret Roka Mauwa complained that the buyers were failing to pay good prices despite the quality of leaf offered by the local farmers on the market. She also advised farmers to spend the earnings on their families and prepare for the next season. On Wednesday, Mutharika opened tobacco sales at the Limbe Auction Floors in Malawi's commercial city, Blantyre. Enditem