Malawi growers underpaid
The tobacco sales floor in Lilongwe. Few economies rely on tobacco as much as Malawi’s
Malawi’s Burley growers are underpaid, according to a new report cited in a Maravi Post story relayed by the TMA.
The report, entitled The Burley Tobacco Value Chain Analysis, was released by the Center For Social Concern (CFSC).
It called for crop diversification for Burley tobacco growers and the creation of a structured market for them, because currently they were not ‘adequately compensated for their contribution in the value chain’.
The report found very low levels of crop or enterprise diversification within the tobacco sector.
It said that farmers understood the need to diversify their range of crops and that most of them already grew other crops, with the most popular being maize (for food), groundnuts, soybean, and beans.
However, the consensus of the farmers was that as a cash crop, there was currently no viable alternatives to tobacco.
“There are so many factors suggesting the leaf processing companies enjoy wider profit margins which can be passed on to other players through higher prices on the auction floors,” said CFSC programs officer Lucky Mfungwe. The Malawi Government needs to be more resolute in enforcing minimum prices to make this happen.”
Mfungwe said that since the domestic tobacco sector was consolidated “there needs to be continuous efforts to bring in more buyers at the auction floors to help build up competition for the tobacco grown by independent farmers”.
He called also for a “review of the contract farming mechanism to ensure that it remains beneficial to the industry in the long term”.