LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi’s 2026 tobacco marketing season will close on Thursday, September 10, after 21 weeks of trading, with the industry heading towards the end of a season marked by lower sales volumes, weaker prices and a substantial decline in revenue compared with last year.
The Tobacco Commission (TC), the statutory regulator responsible for overseeing tobacco production and marketing in Malawi, said all four tobacco markets will close on the same day.
The markets are located in Limbe in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Chinkhoma in Kasungu.
Local media reports that the Commission reached the decision following an assessment of tobacco deliveries to the country’s markets, which showed that most of the 2026 crop had already been sold.
The regulator has directed growers who still have unsold tobacco to deliver their remaining crop to the markets by Tuesday, September 8, ahead of the official closure two days later.
The Commission has also asked other participants in the tobacco value chain to begin winding down their marketing-related activities to ensure that the season ends in an orderly manner.
The simultaneous closure of the four markets represents a departure from last year, when the markets were closed in phases.
The end of this year’s season comes against a difficult financial backdrop for growers. According to sales figures reported by AHL Tobacco Sales Limited, 142.3 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold by the end of week 19, generating US$282.4 million, equivalent to about K494.4 billion, at an average price of US$1.98 per kilogramme, or approximately K3,466.
The figures represent a significant deterioration from the corresponding period last year.
During the first 19 weeks of the 2025 season, 205.3 million kilogrammes had been sold for US$517 million, equivalent to about K905.2 billion, at an average price of US$2.52 per kilogramme, or approximately K4,412. On that comparison, revenue during the 2026 period was about 43 percent lower.
The weaker performance has been reflected in concerns among tobacco growers, who have complained that prices offered during the current marketing season have been too low.
While the near-complete sale of the crop means farmers have generally avoided the large quantities of unsold tobacco experienced in some previous seasons, growers say the prices achieved have reduced the financial benefit of producing the crop.
TAMA Farmers Trust president Abiel Kalima Banda said the fact that almost all tobacco had found buyers was a positive development, but maintained that the overall season had been difficult because of low prices.
The decline in earnings is particularly significant for Malawi because tobacco remains one of the country’s principal sources of foreign exchange.
The crop supports a broad value chain involving farmers, farm workers, transporters, processors, buyers and other businesses linked to tobacco production and marketing.
The Tobacco Commission says its mandate is to regulate tobacco production and marketing while promoting transparent and environmentally responsible systems.
The Commission also registers and licenses participants across the tobacco value chain and oversees sales management and other aspects of the industry.
The 2026 season began on April 20, with the Tobacco Commission initially projecting national production of about 197 million kilogrammes against estimated trade demand of 170 million kilogrammes.
The regulator had also indicated that eight buying companies would participate in this year’s market.
The number of active tobacco buyers fell to eight from 11 during the previous season.
The companies participating in the 2026 market include JTI Leaf (Malawi) Limited, Alliance One Malawi, Limbe Leaf Tobacco, Hail and Cotton (Malawi), Premium Tobacco, Associated Central African, African Tobacco Services and Nyasa Manufacturing.
The contrast with the previous season is substantial.
In 2025, Malawi sold about 221 million kilogrammes of tobacco worth US$542 million at an average price of roughly US$2.45 per kilogramme, according to the Tobacco Commission.
The weaker 2026 performance has consequently renewed questions about the sustainability and competitiveness of Malawi’s tobacco industry, particularly at a time when the country continues to face foreign-exchange shortages and significant pressure on its agricultural economy.
The Commission has already begun introducing measures aimed at strengthening oversight of the sector.
One such initiative is the Know Your Grower project, which is designed to improve traceability and compliance by ensuring that tobacco growers can be properly identified within the marketing system.
The Commission says the initiative is intended to strengthen the grower database and address traceability challenges affecting auction tobacco.
The regulator has also indicated that it plans to introduce production ceilings in the 2026/27 farming season as part of efforts to prevent oversupply.
Such measures are aimed at bringing production more closely in line with market demand and avoiding a recurrence of conditions in which supply exceeds the capacity of buyers and international markets.
For farmers, however, the immediate priority is completing the remaining transactions before the September 10 deadline.
Those with unsold tobacco have been urged to bring their produce to the markets by September 8, while buyers and other industry participants prepare to conclude their operations.
The closing of the 2026 marketing season will provide the government and industry regulators with an opportunity to assess the factors behind the fall in production volumes, prices and foreign-exchange earnings.
It is also likely to intensify discussions over how Malawi can maintain tobacco’s contribution to the economy while improving returns for farmers.
As the four markets prepare to close simultaneously, the 2026 season leaves the tobacco industry with a mixed outcome: most of the available crop has found buyers, but the financial returns have fallen considerably compared with the previous year.
The challenge for Malawi will now be to translate the lessons from this season into stronger production planning, better market access and improved returns for growers in the next marketing cycle.
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