Malawi: Govt Yet to Respond to JTI on Cigarette Plant

Source from:  The Daily Times 07/27/2012

One of the world's leading cigarette manufacturing companies Japanese Tobacco International (JTI), says its proposal to establish a cigarette plant in the country has not yet been responded to by government, two years after it was presented for consideration. JTI Malawi Managing Director Neville Young said it remains the company's vision to venture into local cigarette manufacturing in addition to exports of raw leaf. "We submitted our proposal to government in 2010 and that proposal is still sitting with government," said Young . Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) Chief Executive Bruce Munthali confirmed in a separate interview that JTI submitted the proposal to Capital Hill two years ago where it made requests for investment incentives. "They asked for incentives that include duty waiver for equipment, tax holidays and land acquisition but the government is yet to respond to the proposal," said Munthali. He said there are a number of companies that have submitted proposals with different requests for incentives and government is still considering the applications. However, Young said the company will continue to increase volumes of tobacco it acquires from farmers, especially through contract farming where JTI was currently working with 3, 000 farmers for direct supply of tobacco to the company. The company's Senior Vice President Paul Neumann, who visited Malawi last week, urged the government to enhance Integrated Production System (IPS) through which, among other things, it would be able to control production volumes. The IPS entails contractual agreement between a farmer and a tobacco company where prices and volumes are pre-arranged with added services from the company to the farmer, including extension services and access to loans for production capital. Enditem