Malawi under producing flue-cured

Growers of flue-cured tobacco in Malawi are poised for increased earnings this year because demand for this type is said to be high on the international market, according to a Zodiak Online story.

On Friday, flue-cured fetched as much as US$3.70 per kg at the Chinkhoma auction floors.

Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) chief executive Bruce Munthali, said that Malawi was expected to produce about 16 million kg of flue-cured this season, which was far below market demand.

Meanwhile, a story by Kingsley Jassi for The Daily Times reported that the flue-cured industry had asked the government to waive the duty on coal imported for curing tobacco as a way of promoting the production of flue-cured.

Munthali was quoted as saying that the industry wanted to use coal rather than firewood to cure tobacco because of environmental concerns over the latter.

He said that demand for flue-cured was huge, but that Malawi’s production had dropped recently.

But there were indications from the industry, he added, that production of flue-cured tobacco could be increased if farmers were helped in controlling the cost of production, including the cost of imported coal.

On the Burley front, the TCC reported that Malawi had earned US$3 million from tobacco sales in the first week of the 2013 selling season, according to a Capital Radio story.

TCC spokesperson, Juliana Chidumu, apparently told the radio station that slightly more than two million kg of tobacco had been sold, up from one million kg by the same stage of the previous season.

Chidumu attributed the earnings to “good prices offered by buyers at the Lilongwe and Chinkhoma auction floors.

However, producers delivering tobacco to the Limbe floors were said not to be happy with the prices they were getting.