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Malawi tobacco sales resume after elections

Tobacco sales at the country’s main auction floors and satellite depots resumed Thursday morning after a three-day recess as the country conducted the first ever tripartite elections.

TCC chief executive officer Bruce Munthali told Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) a local radio station on Friday that sales resumed to normality and that the commission is yet to see the impact of the final election results over the general market of the market.

Tobacco sales have since raked in $83 million
Tobacco sales have since raked in $83 million

“Every market is now operational such as Mzuzu, Chinkhoma in Kasungu,Limbe and all other satellite markets such as Mgodi in Machinga and Kabwafu in Mzimba district.” said Munthali.

According to the TCC boss, tobacco sales are going on well in all the markets and that buyers are now competing to buy the leaf, a situation he said is improving prices at the auction floors.

Commenting on the revenue generated so far, Munthali said as of Thursday, the market had generated $83 million from 64 million kilogrammes (kg) of tobacco.

Munthali hoped for an increase in the prices, going forward, from the current average price of $1.53 per kg which he said is lower than the average price of $1.74 per kg during the same period last year.

He explained that the Commission is yet to see if the final outcome of May 20 Tipartite Election results would affect the market conduct in any way.

“We would like to see prices go higher than what we are seeing now and we are optimistic because there is competition on the market. Overall, we are yet to see what will happen on the market after the elections,” he added.

In an interview yesterday, Central Region Tobacco Growers Association (CRTGA) president Enerst Chadzunda observed that contract tobacco prices have picked up to as high as $2.50 per kg which he said has given growers a ray of hope.

“Of course, it is the wish of every grower to go even higher than this but we see that the market has improved in terms of prices especially on contracted tobacco,” said Chadzunda.

Tobacco industry players last week told Business News in Lilongwe that this year’s tobacco market-which opened on March 24 2014-is moving very fast which they said is helping the economy cushion its foreign exchange market.

Tobacco remains Malawi’s main export commodity, generating over 60 percent of the country’s total export revenue.

Last year, the country earned about $362 million, a figure which was higher than $177 million generated in 2012 when the market faced numerous challenges such as regular disruptions of sales at the auction floors due to discontent by growers over prices, among others.

 

 

 

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One Comment

  1. Mr. Mzale, Please review the statistics published in the article, as the source for this news ‘ZBS’ has quoted Mr. Munthali as “total volumes have gone up to 54 million kilos”.

    Please do the needful changes

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