The news that over or nearly 90 percent of our tobacco has been rejected by the buyers at the Auction Floors this year has sent trepidation down our spines.
Our fortunes are not good. We look to the end of this year with hopelessness. Tobacco is key to Malawi. Tobacco is our main forex earner.
For a long time, some 60 years, we have relied on the green gold, as we fondly describe tobacco, to make some coveted forex.
Forex buys medicines that we use and abuse in public and private hospitals. We don’t manufacture most of the drugs. Forex buys spare parts for our fuel guzzling humongous vehicles because we don’t make anything related to vehicles; not even door handles, indicator lamps. Zero. Forex buys food stuffs; drinking stuffs from England, South Africa and, even, Mozambique.
We need the dollar, euro, and the rand to buy most of the things. We will not mention the fuel. Bingu tried to sustain us. Chakwera failed to sustain us, and Mkulukutamoyo is failing, too. That is why we cry, no, weep, no, mourn when we hear the sad news that 90 percent of green gold is being rejected.
Why is our tobacco being rejected en masse like that? Quality control. If you add foreign objects, sand, stones, gaga and vikunguti to enhance weight of tobacco bales, dear farmers, the buyer will not take his dollars and give you. Business is not charity. The buyer wants quality leaf for his every dollar. In the tobacco industry, the buyer is king. And the farmer must provide what the buyer wants. Repeat. In the tobacco industry, the buyer is king.
We have the Tobacco Commission (TC). What does it do to check on quality? Aret is there to train tobacco farmers to produce more and better quality tobacco. Has the institution shirked its responsibility?
The foregoing, cheating, is the major reason the majority of our green gold fails at the auction floors. If at all markets are the problem, then let the TC explore fresh ones. Instead of always looking West and wanting the dollar, as the only unit of exchange in our forex, let us turn to the East. But quality must come first.
Let us turn to China, the second largest economy in the world, and probably the most significant buyer of raw African materials. Restricting our subject of tobacco, China this year has bought $236 million of tobacco from our Zimbabwe brothers and sisters while it took $2.14 million-worth of tobacco from Malawi, according the website, https://oec.world/en/profile/country/.
Last year, China bought $786 million of tobacco from Zimbabwe and $111 million from Zambia. No records for Malawi. These statistics, though not sufficient to draw conclusions from, show that, tentatively, China is an alternative if not a premier market for tobacco from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. If our tobacco meets the quality, China is ready to take it all.
We have already made $2.14 million this year from that market. The Tobacco Commission should explore further the type of tobacco and quality standards the Chinese want and advise farmers here. It should also explore the alternatives to the dollar for tobacco markets. Can our auction floors start marketing our tobacco in Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, European Euro, and other major currencies?
Kwantele, basi, our future will be bright.
