Low prices as Mzuzu Auction Floors opens

Frustrations, heartbreaks and questions marked farmers’ mood at Mzuzu Auction Floors when Minister of Agriculture James Munthali opened the tobacco marketing season on Monday morning.

The farmers disrupted business soon after the opening last year, but the start of the ongoing term was largely epitomised by the growers silently shaking their heads at the sight of the suit-garbed ministerial delegation, watching their leaf going for what they lamented as “lower prices than what we get from [illicit] vendors.”

Inspections revealed that although high-grade leaf was selling at the maximum of $2.30 (K954) a kilogramme on the contract-based market run by Limbe Leaf, $1.90 (K788) was the ceiling price on the free-for-all auction section, where the lowest earner fetched just 85 cents.

The Nation engaged a quality certifier who confirmed that the leaf was almost the same grade despite the disparities in the pricing.

Ironically, the farmers’ hands were largely blamed for presenting bales that were either rejected or underpriced because they contained a mix of quality tobacco with substandard grades or impurities in a malpractice termed nesting.

Speaking soon after opening the sales, Munthali said talks are underway with the buying firms to ensure growers do not get a raw deal at the time they are expecting a “just and fair reward” for their toils in producing good leaf.

“The prices are good, but we are disappointed that the buyers are just buying at minimum prices stipulate, for specific grades and types of tobacco. They can go higher, but the farmers themselves need to desist from mixing quality leaf with substandard grades,” said Munthali in an interview.

The sentiments were echoed by Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) board chair, Crown Prince M’mbelwa V, who urged Agricultural Research and Extension Trust to intensify awareness campaigns to reduce incidents of bad mixtures.

Sales at Mzuzu floors commenced nearly a month after President Joyce Banda kick-started the forex-spinning season at Kanengo in Lilongwe on March 24. Chinkhoma in Kasungu and Limbe in Blantyre opened the same week.

“This is better than the 12.2 million kilogrammes that were sold at $16.8 million during the same period last season,” said M’mbelwa.