Timely Intervention on Tobacco Prices

Source from:  nationmalawi.com 03/29/2006

President Bingu wa Mutharika's intervention Monday on tobacco prices is a positive development that will reward farmers for their farming efforts and encourage them to work harder next growing season. For a very long time, farmers' aspirations on tobacco farming have been frustrated by buying cartels who have literally been fixing tobacco prices in their boardrooms. Consequently, there has been no competition to balance the equation regarding what prices farmers ought to get for their leaf, regardless of its quality. This is why during the past six or seven years, there has been no love lost been tobacco farmers and buyers at all the country's three auction floors where disruptions and boycotts have been the order of the day. Farmers ought to be forgiven for this situation because all they have been fighting for is to get value for their investment in tobacco. We want to mention here that the tobacco industry—which is the mainstay of the economy—has been on the verge of collapse for sometime now. We recognise relentless efforts by organisations like the Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama) to try and breathe life into the sector, but these efforts have, utmost, been suicidal. The setting of the minimum price—which is long overdue—is not meant to make growers rich overnight but to try and help them get back a little something from their labour and which they have been denied for a long time. It is our view that buyers will see sense in what Government has done and that they will give it a hand in enabling the tobacco industry to grow by, among other things, restoring the lost trust between them and growers. Enditem