LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s final consolidated figures for this year’s tobacco earnings have been pegged at US$212 million, it has been learnt. This is the summing gross collection statistics released by regulatory body, Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) saying the earnings surpass last year’s by 23 percent.
In 2016, a total of 194 million kilograms of tobacco was sold at an average of US$1.42 per kg in which the country realized US275 million.
This was a drop from US$362 million of 168 million kg of tobacco sold in 2015 whilst this year 107 million kilograms went through the auction. This represents a 45 percent increase in terms of volumes sold.
According TCC the average price for this year was US$1.99 which was better as compared to last year’s US$1.41 per kilogram. The commission said from the US$212 million, flue cured tobacco contributed $61 million, 19 percent up against last year’s US$45 million.
Burley tobacco fetched US$144 million from 81 million kilograms as compared to last year’s earnings of $226 million from a total volume of 175 million kilograms. TCC Acting Chief Executive Officer, David Luka, said the earnings are better this year as compared to last year.
Luka attribute this year’s large earning to low production of the crop which was in line with buyers’ requirement. He therefore lauded farmers for biding by the quotas the commission allocated to them to avoid issues of over-production
“When you look at the figures, especially the volumes, you will see that, last year, the volumes were higher but the prices were a bit low. This year, we had low volumes and better prices, which we feel is the way to go.
“This season, we will also closely monitor the growers in terms of the quotas allocated to them. What we would like to see is the grower benefiting from his/her sweat,” said Luka.
Tobacco remains the country’s forex earner towards the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) towards national financial year plan.
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