Malawi tobacco growers have been complaining about tardy payments, with some receiving the proceeds of their leaf sales up to a week late, reports The Nyasa Times.
“We are expecting the Tobacco Commission [TC], as the regulator, to come out with measures to eradicate this problem,” said TAMA Trust Vice President Rhodes Sulumba.
TC spokesperson Telephorus Chigwenembe said the problem was limited to isolated cases. “However, we will find out the extent of the problem and the bottlenecks are,” he was quoted as saying.
Malawi has earned $327 million from tobacco sales since the start of this year’s marketing season, up from $282.62 million from the same period last year.
After 11 weeks of sales, growers have sold 112 million kg of all tobacco types, according to AHL Tobacco Sales. During the comparable period of 2023, the figure was 94.3 million kg.