Mining & Trade News

The Tobacco Commission (TC) has warned tobacco traders against purchasing the crop from farmers without a buyer’s licence and cross-border tobacco trading saying such practices contravene the Tobacco Industry Act of 2019, which has now come into force.

The new Tobacco Act, which became effective in February last year, seeks to bring sanity and curb major constraints for the industry including high cost of production and bad agricultural practices.

TC’s Corporate Planning and Development Manager Hellings Nasoni told Mining & Trade Review in an interview that the Commission is now enforcing the law to address illegal practices in the tobacco industry.

He said: “Illegal tobacco vending has been a problem for Malawi for a long time and it has contributed to the downfall of the local market for the gold leaf.”

 “Therefore, we are issuing a timely warning to alert potential perpetrators against the illegal acts.”

“The Commission has been receiving reports of malpractices such as exporting unprocessed tobacco without written permission from TC and, importing tobacco to sell it on Malawi Tobacco Licensed Floor which is contrary to Section 96(2) and section 87(1) of Tobacco Industry Act 2019.”

Nasoni described the New Act as a vital instrument that will protect farmers from being exploited by vendors who buy tobacco from growers without a valid buyer’s license which is in breach of Section 67(1) of the Act.

The Act states that any person contravening these sections shall upon conviction be liable to a fine of K10- million and 5-years imprisonment.

Tobacco buying companies have expressed interest to buy 154.3 million kilogrammes (kgs) of tobacco this year, 3% higher than the aggregate demand of 149.6 million kilograms in 2019.

Tobacco is Malawi’s main foreign exchange earner which rakes in about 60% of foreign exchange earnings for the country, and contributes about 13% to gross domestic product.

Leave a Comment

Comments