Tama Farmers Trust has advised tobacco farmers to strictly adhere to Tobacco Commission (TC) quotas in the 2025/26 growing season to avoid over-production and elongating the season.
The call comes against the backdrop of the tobacco regulatory authority indicating that the 2024/25 Tobacco Marketing Season, which opened in April, will close on October 24 2025, making it one of the longest.
Tama Farmers Trust president Abiel Kalima Banda, while commending TC for ensuring that all the produced volumes are sold, said farmers should ensure that they produce according to their quotas to avoid elongating the season and affecting preparations for the next growing season.
He said: “As Tama Farmers Trust, we are grateful to TC because we were worried that some farmers could end up failing to sell their tobacco, but this is not the case.
“However, our message to farmers is that in the coming growing season, they must adhere to their production quotas to avoid a similar situation where tobacco is over-produced and the selling season is prolonged like in this case. This affects planning ahead of the next season.”
In an interview on Friday, TC spokesperson Telephorus Chigwenembe said the commission is happy that the country has produced over 200 million kilogramme (kg) of tobacco.
He said farmers have been assured that the remaining volumes will be sold.
“We have seen that most of the tobacco has been sold and what is remaining can be sold out in the remaining time and Mzuzu Floors will be closed on October 24,” said Chigwenembe.
Ministry of Agriculture indicated that to ensure the remaining tobacco is bought, it authorised Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) to buy the tobacco that has been left by the traditional buyers.
The ministry’s Principal Secretary Dickxie Kampani said government remains committed to providing a reliable and sustainable market for their crop.
He said: “The government reassures the entire tobacco-growing community of its full support and affirms that it will provide all necessary resources to the SFFRFM to complete this purchasing initiative successfully.”
A production estimate survey initially projected output at 174.4 million kg, but now the country has sold 214 million kg, which the Ministry of Agriculture attributed to improved weather conditions towards the end of rainy season.
Limbe Floors closed on August 8 while Lilongwe and Chikhoma floors closed on October 8.
This season, Malawi has raked in $532 million (about K932.2 billion) sold at an average price of $2.49 (K4 359) per kg.
Last season, Malawi earned $396 million (about K693 billion) after selling 133 million kg of tobacco at an average price of $2.98 (about K5 217) per kg.
Tobacco remains Malawi’s main export crop, contributing more than 50 percent to the country’s foreign exchange earnings and 13 percent to the economy.
