Malawi Rakes in US$117m from Tobacco Sales

Source from:  APA  06/05/2014

Malawi has earned US$117 million in tobacco sales since the beginning of the 2013/14 marketing season in March, representing a five-percent increase over last year's sales.According to the latest Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) market update released on Wednesday, the volume of tobacco that had gone under the hammer at the auction floors by the end of May stood at 72 million kilogrammes, which was 20 percent higher than the 60 million kg sold last year.

TCC chief executive Bruce Munthali said the average price for the commodity was picking up compared to last year's prices during the same period.

"The prices for tobacco are picking up and we expect them to increase further starting next week," he said.

He added that the prices were not satisfactory last week due to elections' tension leading buyers offering low prices.

Tobacco is Malawi's major foreign currency earner. Enditem