Tag Archives: Kaisi Sadala

Malawi

Covid-19 hampers Malawi’s tobacco sales

Maneno Chimulala

Written by Richard Kayenda

Malawi Tobacco
Tobacco: Malawi’s forex earner

Malawi’s 2020 tobacco marketing season has yielded poor returns for farmers due to the global pandemic of Covid-19.

According to Tobacco Commission (TC) Chief Executive Officer, Kaisi Sadala, in the eleventh week of the marketing season, Malawi has sold only 73 million kilograms of the crop lower than 85 million kilograms sold in the same period last season and has earned 110 million dollars lower than 125 million dollars which the market earned last season, representing 5 percent decrease.

“This is of course attributable to the fact that with the Coronavirus preventive measures, initially, we were not able to reach out as wide market as possible. However, when we talk of prices, we have gotten better prices this year compared to last year, because same period last year, we were at one dollar 47 as an average price and while this year we are at one dollar 61 representing an increase of 3 percent,” Sadala said.

On his part, Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA) Trust President, Abel Kalima Banda, expressed satisfaction with the market but was quick to lament the rate of rejection, appealing to the farmers to seriously look into the quality of the leaf and the commission to offer much better prices in the coming seasons.

Banda said: “So, my plea is to ask my fellow growers to grade properly and the buyers should also buy tobacco in good prices because if they don’t buy in good prices, farmers will go back to the fields in that way we suffer and the buyers themselves will also suffer.”

During this year’s tobacco marketing season, strictest preventive measures against Covid-19 were observed with farmers not allowed to enter marketing floors as a way of protecting them from contracting the virus.

For some years, tobacco has been the backbone of Malawi’s economy. However, its global market is sharply shrinking due to global anti smoking lobbies.

Business

Malawi govt heeds to growers’ call on representation at tobacco sales

Malawi News Agency (MANA)
Chief Executive Officer for Tobacco Commission, Kayisi Sadala, made the announcement in Mzuzu on Friday.

Almost two weeks after launching a process to review representation of tobacco growers at the Auction Floors, the Tobacco Commission has finally announced that growers will be responsible for choosing representatives from their zones.

Chief Executive Officer for Tobacco Commission, Kayisi Sadala, made the announcement in Mzuzu on Friday.

“This move demonstrates the Government’s willingness to listen to genuine concerns from tobacco growers despite the tough conditions under Covid-19,” Sadala said.

Until now, the only grower representatives allowed at the floors were those picked by the Tobacco Growers Associations.

But Government has now heeded to the growers’ call for the growers to play a direct role in choosing who should be at the floors on their behalf.

The move is aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in tobacco sales to assure the growers that there are no underhand dealings during the sale of the their tobacco as some may have suspected.

At the start of the tobacco marketing season, the Commission restricted the representation of the growers at the auction floors to reduce congestion in response to coronavirus pandemic.

“The existing representation was coming from the Tobacco Growers Associations which the growers felt wasn’t enough, hence their request for consideration,” Sadala said.

With the review of the procedure, it means growers have more say now.

“The zonal representatives will be picked by the growers themselves while those from the associations will continue playing their monitoring role as has been the case,” Sadala explained.

In a statement dated 12 June 2020 signed by Sadala, the Tobacco Commission says the move caters for both commercial and smallholder growers.

However, the Commission has underlined that its response to coronavirus will not be compromised.

Both the commercial and smallholder growers representatives shall be required to comply with measures laid down to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

In April, President Peter Mutharika announced a raft of economic measures for the country to contend with the impact of coronavirus.

Among the measures, he directed the Ministry of Agriculture to make sure that Auction Holdings Limited functions normally “to operate the tobacco marketing season and protect tobacco farmers.”