Malawi buying season extended

Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) has extended the leaf tobacco buying season to November, according to a story in The Nyasa Times.

TCC planning and research manager Hennings Wasoni said the market had supposed to close in September but that, because of overproduction, there was still a lot of tobacco that had not been sold.

“We produced 165 million kg of tobacco instead of 133 million kg,” he said.

But farmers point out that the current marketing season was marred by low prices and high rejection rates.

In fact, this year, tobacco sold at an average of US$1.36 per kg, down by nearly 23 percent on the average of last year, US$1.76.

These low prices were imposed on growers despite assurances throughout the buying season that something would be down to address the low prices and high rejection rates.

Not all farmers are happy with extending the buying season, because some believe that such an extension will negatively affect the growing season.