Malawi: Tobacco Sales Start Today

Source from:  The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe) March 27, 2006 03/28/2006

This year's tobacco auctioning season starts today at Lilongwe Auction Floors amid fears that prices for the leaf might not fetch satisfactory prices following disagreements between the government and buyers on price-posting. The sales were originally rescheduled to start last Thursday but the discussions that started last Monday between President Bingu wa Mutharika and the buyers at the New State House in Lilongwe failed to reach a consensus on government's decision to set start-up minimum prices for the crop. The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President John Tembo said there is a great need for buyers to increase prices as a way of encouraging farmers to grow more tobacco. Tembo, who is leader of opposition in parliament and himself a farmer, told journalists recently that it is only imperative for buyers to ensure that they put forward right prices so that farmers should realise maximum benefit from their produce. "As you all know that Malawi depends on agriculture as a major forex earner we must make sure that we encourage farmers to do more tobacco farming by offering them lucrative prices. But what we hear nowadays is pathetic. I am siding with farmers on this matter," said Tembo. Enditem